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February 28th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda <!–
The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, has responded to rail chaos in Brisbane this morning – caused by a downed power line – by offering free travel to everyone. It is estimated to cost $1 million in lost revenue.
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MARK COLVIN: The Queensland Premier has responded to this morning’s peak hour chaos on the rail network by offering free travel for everyone tomorrow.
It’s part of an apology for the delays caused by a downed power line. Anna Bligh says it will cost about a million dollars in lost revenue.
But the Opposition says it’s an electoral bribe and a major breach of the caretaker convention.
Matt Wordsworth reports.
MATT WORDSWORTH: For days Anna Bligh has seen her campaign overshadowed by the federal leadership challenge. Now it’s been sidetracked by a small clamp that failed to hold up a power line.
ANNA BLIGH: Firstly can I apologise to commuters. This is an unprecedented fault. It has never happened before.
MATT WORDSWORTH: The line dumped 25,000 volts of electricity onto the tracks and knocked out the signalling system.
The Premier says that means train travel would have been unacceptably unsafe.
Services were restored within a few hours but tens of thousands of people were delayed during the critical peak period of 6am to 9am.
Some passengers were upset.
COMMUTER 1: I just want to get on the train and go from one place to another. That’s all I want to do, reliably. And this government has never provided that to me.
COMMUTER 2: I’ve got to go the other side of the city so looks like Shank’s pony.
COMMUTER 3: Where’s our buses? We’re supposed to be getting back into town. We don’t have anything.
MATT WORDSWORTH: Others took it in their stride.
COMMUTER 4: Oh they’re saying that they’re going to call a cab for me. We’ll get free cabs. I’m cheering, yeah.
MATT WORDSWORTH: But Anna Bligh says they deserve some recompense.
ANNA BLIGH: Commuters tomorrow will be offered a day of free travel as a way of compensating them for the chaos that was experienced this morning. That free travel will start from the first services tomorrow morning and go until midnight Wednesday evening.
That means ferries, buses, trains, all TransLink services and QR rail services.
MATT WORDSWORTH: The deputy Opposition leader, Tim Nicholls, doesn’t describe the idea as compensation.
TIM NICHOLLS: Well this is quite patently an election eve bribe to make up for the failure to deliver the services that Queenslanders are paying more and more for.
MATT WORDSWORTH: So we’re in the midst of the election campaign, do you think the caretaker convention applies here?
TIM NICHOLLS: During the caretaker period things that are the normal day to day business of government should continue on but no substantial policy decisions, or decisions of the type that we’ve seen today, ought to be made at the direction of the Premier where they can be seen to have a political advantage.
And quite clearly the Premier is reacting in a political way here by announcing the free fare day for tomorrow.
MATT WORDSWORTH: The Federal Government’s guidance on caretaker conventions does dictate that resources shouldn’t be used to advantage a particular party.
But the Queensland Cabinet Handbook, which contains its own interpretation of the conventions, contains no similar provision, only that departments should avoid partisanship.
The Transport Minister says she was the one who directed TransLink to offer a fare free day but says that’s not a breach of the caretaker rules.
In a statement she says it doesn’t “bind any future government and is disappointed the LNP is seeking to deny commuters the opportunity of free public transport”.
MARK COLVIN: Matt Wordsworth.
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