Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

because I am sure he was in the parliament at that time; he may correct me. It started the process of putting the ‘blacktop’, we call it, out into that part of my electorate so that people could get their cattle in and get them out when the seasons turned against them. So there is a very important environmental aspect to having good roads and being able to bring your cattle in and take them out rather than leave them there to die because you are unable to move them in their weakened state. Out there, you do not know when the season may turn in your favour.

There is another aspect to the outback of my electorate, and that is the oil and gas industry. We all know the importance of oil to our nation and to the world. Out in the outback of my electorate, in the Cooper Basin and the Jackson oilfields, the oil company Santos will be drilling some 1,000 holes over the next two years looking for oil. They have taken huge machinery out there to drill these holes for oil, which is going to benefit our nation and the economy as a whole. They take these huge machines over what could be described as little more than a road you might expect to see in a Third World country, a dirt road with gibbers and stones on it and huge bulldust patches on it. I believe we can do better as a country and a government, because that oil is vital to us. It creates jobs and it creates wealth when they are out there in the remote part of my electorate, west of Thargomindah and Eromanga, drilling for oil.

Also, it is the home of the great gas reserves of this nation. The Moomba gas fields and the Jackson and Ballera gas fields feed gas into Brisbane, Townsville, Mount Isa, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. These companies have got to not only explore for more but maintain the installations out there. So any money that we were to put into upgrading these roads would benefit not just the people who live there, the beef industry out there and the tourists who visit the outback but also the oil and gas industry, which is a vital industry, so that we can continue to find more of the energy reserves that we need in Australia and find gas that we can export to overseas markets and create export wealth.

So I say as I rise in this House today that, as a government—and I am proud to be part of a government that has addressed the economic and the budget situation that we inherited; we have one of the strongest economies in the world—it is time that we now focused on more infrastructure spending, be it road or rail, to ensure that the legacy that we leave to future generations is going to bring a benefit to the communities who live in these parts of the world, in these wealth-creating areas of our nation.

I refer today to the Diamantina Development Road between Windorah and Bedourie and the Birdsville road from Windorah to Birdsville. I also refer to the road from Thargomindah right out to Innamincka, feeding into the Moomba oil and gas fields. They are dirt roads. I would like to see more money made available through our strategic Roads to Recovery program. I would like to create another category of strategic rural development roads, because we are talking about the development of the outback. We are talking about development that is essential in the long term to assist in growing our nation.

In the remaining time, which has nearly expired, I commend the programs that we have in place now, spending some $15 billion through the AusLink program. I have spoken to the new incoming Minister for Transport and Regional Services and Deputy Prime Minister about this issue. There are other roads of strategic importance in my electorate, such as the Mitchell to Roma road, which if it were widened would allow type 2 road trains to travel on it, bringing cattle into the markets in Roma. I will be pushing hard over the coming months to get more money for roads for my electorate. (Time expired)

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