Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I want the member for Dawson to tell me what he thinks about the importance of the Townsville-Mount Isa rail corridor and why the government has not funded that very important ‘nation-building’ corridor. Why is that? The north-west minerals province relies so much on that rail corridor. The rail is old and out of date. It is not heavy enough in gauge to carry the weights. There are not enough passing loops. Why the member for Dawson does not support investment in the rail corridor—the 900- to 1,000-kilometre rail corridor from Townsville to Mount Isa—I do not know. It is very odd.

I would like to conclude by making this challenge to the member for Dawson: what about the much needed passing lanes on the Bruce Highway? What about them? We need passing lanes every five kilometres. You are the government and you have just dropped North Queensland as a priority. We are second-class citizens. You are more interested in the people of Newcastle than the people of Darwin or Townsville or Mackay. And that is sad. It really is sad. The wealth of this country comes out of regional Australia. Yes; we do not have the population and ergo we do not have the votes. That is the spin from the Rudd government: go where the votes are. But, at the end of the day, if this nation is going to be prosperous it has to have proper regional infrastructure, as it has proper urban infrastructure. We have not got that. When this speech is reported in the Mackay Daily Mercury and the Townsville Bulletin, the residents of North Queensland will see that I was standing up for North Queensland and the member for Dawson was opposing me. I thank the House.

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