Not government’s role to buy jobs: Andrew

The Queensland Labor government’s attempt to buy airline jobs with taxpayer-funded debt is proof they missed their own brief. We don’t elect a government to take our money and buy jobs. Governments don’t create real jobs, and they certainly shouldn’t buy them. It’s the government’s job to create an environment that enables businesses to create those real jobs.
If the Queensland Labor government wants to keep Virgin operating and keep their head office in Queensland, they should look at how their own government treats businesses. Labor needs to ask themselves (or, better still, ask Virgin management) why an airline would want to go to the trouble and expense of moving their head office to another state. Fixing those issues should be their priority.
Given Labor’s record of sending the State into debt, the last thing they should be doing is spending more borrowed money to buy an airline that is already losing money. Aviation analyst Neil Hansford earlier this week said the winning bid to buy Virgin would have to have strong aviation experience and a willingness to lose money in the short-term”. There’s no question that Labor is willing to lose money. They are experts in that field. The problem is that it’s not their money and the people of Queensland are not willing to see their money and their future thrown down the gurgler.