Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I live in the electorate of Blair, and the main city in the electorate of Blair happens to be Ipswich. It is the oldest city in Queensland and it was built on coalmining. Even now we still have coalmines at Ipswich, Jeebropilly and New Oakleigh which are owned and run by New Hope Coal at Rosewood. The truth is that coalmining built Ipswich. The railway workshops and other industries, and now the RAAF base at Amberley and the woollen mills and other industries, have been integral to the industrial development of Ipswich, so Ipswich has been a mining town for a very long time.

I know the massive impact that government decision making has had on Ipswich. It has been railways and roads, community infrastructure and government assistance, and Ipswich has also been helped with respect to schools, hospitals and the building of the community. It has not been taxation; it has been that sort of initiative. This government has been utterly and completely committed to that type of investment in the mining towns and cities in regional and rural Queensland—places like Ipswich, Rockhampton, Mackay and elsewhere. We have invested, whether through the BER funding, which nearly doubled education funding in the schools in areas where miners and other workers in those communities send their kids, or through regional health and hospitals like Ipswich General Hospital in my community. What we have done in these communities is invest in infrastructure. In Queensland alone we have doubled the funding for road, rail and ports to $8.5 billion. That is double what the previous coalition government did. We have not done it through taxation. The massive impact on these communities comes from infrastructure spending by this government, allied with our colleagues in the state Labor government. We have seen it, whether it be the State Schools of Tomorrow in Ipswich from the Queensland Labor government or the BER in Ipswich from this federal government.

I went to an election in 2007with the carbon pricing mechanism. I remember that my opponent, the incumbent member for Blair, talked about this issue and about the fact that the coalition as well believed in a clean energy future. I do not know how all those people opposite who were candidates in 2007 and who subsequently supported various opposition leaders until the current opposition leader got elected by one vote in a caucus ballot just a year or so ago can sit in this place and criticise us for adopting what the Productivity Commission recommends is the most effective and efficient way to deal with the challenge of climate change—that is, putting a price on carbon. We know that the same Treasury officials who costed the impact of the GST at 2.5 per cent on the households, individuals, businesses and economy of Australia back in the coalition's day, when the coalition sat on the Treasury bench, say the impact of a carbon pricing mechanism will be 0.7 per cent. That is just over a quarter of the impact of the GST.

You would believe the jeremiads of those opposite if you believed in the tooth fairy, the Loch Ness monster, the yeti or other mythical creatures. You would think that Armageddon was coming on 1 July. It is extraordinary. It will be a 'massive impact', the coalition says. The massive impact in regional and rural Queensland and in mining communities has been made by this government with its massive investments in infrastructure, rail, road and community facilities. That is the impact that we have made massively. It has not been made by those opposite, who have simply neglected those areas. Their attitude to the mining towns and towards regional Queensland and Queensland generally has been characterised by inertia, inactivity and idleness. That is what their attitude to Queensland has always been. From the 1970s until we got elected in 2007, the only major investment we saw from a federal government in Ipswich was the Ipswich Civic Centre. It was opened by Gough Whitlam in his day. The coalition neglected Ipswich and its surrounds for ages. It was a coalmining town. They neglected it. Why? Because they felt it would only vote Labor. They have always punished the people of Ipswich—and every mining community, including Rockhampton, in the member for Capricornia's electorate—by not funding them.

I can remember the state member for Ipswich West, Don Livingstone, telling me that when he first got elected—he is now retired; he is a great bloke who did a lot for Ipswich West and the rural parts of Somerset as well—he asked for the road projects that were then made available by the coalition government to other conservative governments in Queensland at the state level. What road funding projects were available? What was the plan for the next five years? He told me there were none—and why should we be surprised? The coalition has always neglected these regions.

I can give you a perfect example from this campaign. A massive impact on my community in Ipswich is the refusal by the LNP opposition in Queensland to commit to the Ipswich Turf Club. We have committed $6 million. The racing authorities in Queensland have committed it. Six million dollars has been committed by the Bligh Labor government for the turf club in Ipswich. There is $110 million on the table for this, according to the coalition opposition in Queensland, but they will not invest in Ipswich. They will not do it, but we will. The most visited regional race in the country is the Ipswich Cup. About 21,000 people went to the Ipswich Cup last year. I go every year. That has a huge impact on the economy of Ipswich—on the retailers, the service stations, and the pubs and clubs in Ipswich. It is important community infrastructure in the mining town of Ipswich, and guess what? Those opposite will not support it. They talk about 'massive impact' in mining areas. What about supporting the Ipswich Turf Club? We get 'no' as an answer from those opposite. And why would they? They have opposed, repeatedly, funding in South-East Queensland and in Queensland.

The big infrastructure funding we have talked about, the 'massive impact' that the Leader of the Nationals talks about in this motion, is being affected and is going to be affected by this government and our regional infrastructure funding. Under the minerals resource rental tax, we are putting about $5.6 billion into railroad and port funding across the country. Two billion dollars has been earmarked for Queensland and $2 billion has been earmarked for Western Australia, the resource-rich states. We are going to benefit. Every single member of the LNP from Queensland who has sat in this place during question time and has stood and made speeches here has opposed the funding for that. That is what will make the massive impact. It will not be the carbon pricing mechanism, for which we will compensate with family tax benefits, tax cuts and assistance through pensions. We will more than compensate many. It is a 'battlers' buffer', the Deputy Prime Minister and the Treasurer always says. The carbon pricing will not make the massive impact, but the regional infrastructure funding and the minerals resource rent tax, the $2 billion, will. In places like Mackay, Gladstone, Rockhampton and Ipswich that will make a 'massive impact'.

The Queensland LNP members opposite really should hang their heads in shame that they have the gall to come into this place and criticise us and say, with these jeremiads: 'The carbon tax will have a massive impact on regional and rural Queensland.' The massive impact, in a positive way, on regional and rural Queensland has been made by this government, in conjunction with the Bligh Labor government, to benefit Queensland. It has always been that. It is interesting that the Leader of the Opposition in Queensland, the putative parliamentarian for Ashgrove, is saying, 'We're going to provide about a billion dollars on the Bruce Highway', but he wants federal government funding for it. He should talk to his LNP colleagues from Queensland, who actually voted against the kind of funding that will assist him if he happens to win on Saturday. The coalition will say one thing when they are here, do one thing and vote against funding for their communities, but back home they will not. Back home they will be great local members and talk about how they want to fight for their constituents, but here they vote against them. The 'massive impact' will be made in my home state of Queensland by the infrastructure spending that this government is undertaking in conjunction with the Labor government of Queensland. I urge the people of Queensland to think about the consequences of their vote next Saturday. Vote for your Labor candidates who will work with this government to make sure we invest in Queensland and that will make the 'massive impact' in Queensland. (Time expired)

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