Published Wednesday, 27 February, 2008 at 04:09 PM
Minister for Main Roads and Local Government
The Honourable Warren Pitt
Deceitful road funding claims amount to highway fraud
Federal Member for Wide Bay Warren Truss is guilty of “highway fraud” over his recent road funding claims, Main Roads Minister Warren Pitt said today.
Mr Pitt said he was appalled at the way the Federal Nationals Leader had sought to mislead people on promised funding for the Bruce Highway north of Gympie.
“Even allowing for the normal cut and thrust of politics, Mr Truss’s claims can only be described as shameful.
“Mr Truss has claimed that the Federal Government has cut $500 million in funding to upgrade this stretch of highway.
“This is completely untrue. The Federal Government has not cut one dollar from the funding it has pledged.
“Mr Truss obviously subscribes to the approach that if you are going to tell a lie, make it a big one. In his case it’s certainly a huge one – a $500 million lie.”
Mr Pitt said Mr Truss had resorted to the deceitful tactic of trying to pass off the Federal coalition’s election promise of $700 million for the Cooroy-Curra section of highway as locked-in Federal funding.
“It is important to understand the context of this $700 million election promise – it was part of a desperate splurge of road spending promises trying to buy votes in the run-up to last year’s federal election.
“The coalition parties behaved like drunken sailors. Their spending promises on roads were $3 billion more than the amount allocated in the federal government’s budget for roads.
“There is no way on this earth that the coalition parties, if re-elected, would have been in a position to honour all of those commitments.
“They would have been ditched left, right and centre. That’s the context that this promise of $700 million needs to be seen in.
“However, Mr Truss is not satisfied with seeking to misrepresent this rubbery $700 million election campaign promise as approved and guaranteed Federal funding.
“He has gone one shabby step further, and has suggested that the new Federal Government has inherited this spending commitment.
“Mr Truss didn’t come down in the last shower, but that’s the way he is treating everyone else with his suggestion that the new Federal Government is somehow duty bound to honour the coalition parties’ dodgy election promises.”
“Mr Truss has the gall and the audacity to state that he would be “reminding” the Federal Government of how it had cut spending from the highway upgrade.
“I can only say to Mr Truss that every time he issues one of his reminders, I’ll be reminding him of his $500 million lie. I’ll be reminding people that he has not one shred of credibility on this issue.
“I will also be reminding motorists that for the last 10 years Mr Truss has sat on his hands and achieved nothing on behalf of his constituents – even though it was his government that held office for all of that time,” Mr Pitt said.
Media contact: Minister Pitt’s Office 3227 8819
Mr Pitt said he was appalled at the way the Federal Nationals Leader had sought to mislead people on promised funding for the Bruce Highway north of Gympie.
“Even allowing for the normal cut and thrust of politics, Mr Truss’s claims can only be described as shameful.
“Mr Truss has claimed that the Federal Government has cut $500 million in funding to upgrade this stretch of highway.
“This is completely untrue. The Federal Government has not cut one dollar from the funding it has pledged.
“Mr Truss obviously subscribes to the approach that if you are going to tell a lie, make it a big one. In his case it’s certainly a huge one – a $500 million lie.”
Mr Pitt said Mr Truss had resorted to the deceitful tactic of trying to pass off the Federal coalition’s election promise of $700 million for the Cooroy-Curra section of highway as locked-in Federal funding.
“It is important to understand the context of this $700 million election promise – it was part of a desperate splurge of road spending promises trying to buy votes in the run-up to last year’s federal election.
“The coalition parties behaved like drunken sailors. Their spending promises on roads were $3 billion more than the amount allocated in the federal government’s budget for roads.
“There is no way on this earth that the coalition parties, if re-elected, would have been in a position to honour all of those commitments.
“They would have been ditched left, right and centre. That’s the context that this promise of $700 million needs to be seen in.
“However, Mr Truss is not satisfied with seeking to misrepresent this rubbery $700 million election campaign promise as approved and guaranteed Federal funding.
“He has gone one shabby step further, and has suggested that the new Federal Government has inherited this spending commitment.
“Mr Truss didn’t come down in the last shower, but that’s the way he is treating everyone else with his suggestion that the new Federal Government is somehow duty bound to honour the coalition parties’ dodgy election promises.”
“Mr Truss has the gall and the audacity to state that he would be “reminding” the Federal Government of how it had cut spending from the highway upgrade.
“I can only say to Mr Truss that every time he issues one of his reminders, I’ll be reminding him of his $500 million lie. I’ll be reminding people that he has not one shred of credibility on this issue.
“I will also be reminding motorists that for the last 10 years Mr Truss has sat on his hands and achieved nothing on behalf of his constituents – even though it was his government that held office for all of that time,” Mr Pitt said.
Media contact: Minister Pitt’s Office 3227 8819