Sturgo couldn’t be bothered …

TIM MORRIS Greens Infrastructure Spokesperson. Saturday, 30 May 2009
The Tasmanian Greens today called on Infrastructure Minister Graeme Sturges to resign for incompetence after the Minister finally admitted yesterday that he had not bothered to apply for any of the Federal Government’s 2009/10 Infrastructure Stimulus funds on behalf of Tasmania’s ailing rail network, despite the crying need for infrastructure upgrades across the entire network.

STURGES INCOMPETENT, EVASIVE

Greens Infrastructure spokesperson Tim Morris MP said Minister Sturges’ repeated failure to answer any questions on this matter, only to finally reveal the truth in a media interview yesterday, was arrogant and evasive behaviour that demonstrated the Minister’s inability to acknowledge the real issues that are facing Tasmania’s rail network.

Mr Morris also said that the Minister’s focus on infrastructure funds that have already been allocated, much of them for non-rail infrastructure components, was extremely disingeneous and nothing more than an attempt to confuse the simple issue of his failure as Infrastructure Minister to apply for any rail funding from the largest infrastructure upgrade fund in Australian history.

“What kind of an Infrastructure Minister fails to apply for any rail funding during the largest infrastructure upgrade in Australian history?,” said Mr Morris.

“This Minster must resign, if not for incompetence then for his subsequent evasion when he repeatedly failed to answer questions on this, only to finally reveal the truth in a media interview.”

“The Minister is dreaming if he really believes that the money already allocated to rail in Tasmania will fix the current problems – he appears not to understand the scale and urgency of the issues facing our rail network.”

“Minister Sturges must resign, and then apologise to the people of Tasmania for his incompetent failure to grasp the best chance we ever had to upgrade rail in Tasmania,” said Mr Morris.