Strelow backs Labor on jobs for Rocky plan

INDEPENDENT candidate Margaret Strelow has thrown her support behind a Labor Party jobs program, saying the LNP equivalent offered nothing to Rockhampton.

Ms Strelow said the comparison between Labor's Works for Queensland program and the LNP's Royalties for the Regions showed unequivocally which major party had offered more for the region.

"The Labor Party's Works for Queensland program has delivered over $18 million in two years,” she said.

"The LNP's Royalties for the Region program, gave us $1 million announced three times over three years.

"The Works for Queensland program is free from political interference, it's based on population and unemployment rates and it is just made available for local government to go and get jobs happening very quickly.”

As mayor, Ms Strelow said she had seen real results from this program and would continue to support any program not swayed by politics and not requiring matched funding by councils.

Ms Strelow also hit out at continual businesses cases for major projects like Rookwood Weir or the proposed Browne Park expansion, saying the same standards were not being applied to Brisbane's cross-river rail.

"What we need are some affirmative action policies for the regions,” she said.

"Leaving it to market forces will finish the regions.

"We need things like state development areas, like tax incentives; active policies that push people out into the regions as much as we can.”