Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Kennedy for his question. The member for Kennedy raises an issue that he has championed long in this House—the importance and possibility for agricultural growth in the north of Australia. It is true that there are extraordinary quantities of water available in the north and, unless mechanisms are found to be able to better harvest that water, the communities there will not be able to fully take advantage of that. When the Northern task force reported—I think it was a couple of years ago now—I was asked a question about the possibilities here, and on behalf of the government I reaffirmed that there is no government policy against the building of weirs or dams and that these were issues that we were very happy to look at.

Some of the work that is relevant to what the member has asked goes to the Northern Australia Sustainable Futures Program. It is worth $6 million. It builds on existing government programs to advance the economic, social and cultural interests of people living in the north. Because there are so many different departments and agencies involved, there is now a new Northern Australia Ministerial Forum, which had its inaugural meeting on 13 December last year. I am advised it was highly successful in facilitating genuinely collaborative action in Northern Australia.

The question also goes to what work is being done purely within government, here, in getting the various agencies in the Commonwealth government to better align to make sure that these programs and possibilities for Northern Australian can finally be brought together. As the member for Kennedy notes, we are not necessarily talking about massive projects but, in terms of the impact on those towns, a very substantial difference in employment prospects and for the future of those areas.

On the working group to which you referred, I am advised that, with the approval of the Prime Minister, a working group is being established which will be convened under Minister Ludwig, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The Minister will be well placed to bring together the key elements of reconstruction following Cyclone Yasi as well as more broadly ensuring that there is a long-term plan for agriculture in Northern Australia.

The working group will look at resourced development in the five towns of the Queensland Gulf and Midwest in harvesting local water and inland resources. There is no doubt that throughout Australia there are opportunities to better use and more effectively use the water that we have. On many occasions, I have referred to the ambitions the government has within the Murray-Darling, of making sure that we can get healthy rivers, strong communities and sustainable food production. Those same three principles can just as easily be levelled towards the opportunities for Northern Australia.

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