Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sitting here listening to the contribution from the honourable member for Herbert, you would think that there was nothing happening. I am sure they have either deliberately or mistakenly not read what is happening. The motion itself is actually redundant, if it was ever needed, because all of the work was actually going on, and it was clear there was a commitment from the Australian government—from the Labor government—to fund and support the Torres Strait Islanders from the severe flooding that they experience.

There has been a $12 million allocation of funds—but I will come to that. If the motion actually took out things like 'condemns the minister'—because it has been the minister and the senator for Queensland, the Hon. Jan McLucas, who have been doing a lot of work on this with locals and with local authorities—then it is something I could get up and speak in support of. But as it is, there is no way that I could give support to it because it is just simply put there as an attack. It is easy to do that; it is easy to put words on paper and it is easy to come in here, speak big and act as though nothing is happening when in fact the opposite is true. Talk about trying to alter reality to fit your perceived political notions of the world!

I would recommend that all the speakers here reflect on the importance of the work being done in the Torres Strait and right across the country—particularly through the Regional Development Australia Fund. Many members would have seen that there was RDAF round 1 and RDAF round 2, which has just been announced across Australia, and quite a lot of members would have seen wonderful projects get up in their area. I will come to my electorate of Page, where a great project got up under Regional Development Australia Fund 2—I had the Minister for Regional Development and Local Government in my electorate, announcing that in conjunction with Ballina Shire Council—but this motion is directed to Queensland.

Some of the things I want to put on the record here that are important with this nonsense motion is that two weeks ago the ministers for Indigenous affairs and for regional Australia, and senator for Queensland, Jan McLucas, announced up to $2 million to help fund coastal protection works in the Torres Strait. I am told that we are still waiting to hear from the Queensland government what they are going to announce and what their contribution would be. Also, if this motion included talking about the Queensland government and what they could do, it would have more integrity—and it does not. It is a glaring omission. The $12 million funding I just referred to includes a $5 million grant to the Torres Strait Island Regional Council from round 2 of the Regional Development Australia Fund and up to $7 million in additional funding. It shows that the government is doing all that it can to support the local council, the regional authority, the communities and people living on the islands to protect their homes. I acknowledge the strong advocacy and support provided by Senator Jan McLucas from Queensland. From her Cairns base, she has travelled many times to Torres Strait to work towards finding a workable funding solution to address the community need. That is what local members or senators with a particular interest in an area do—we work to find solutions. We do not just come in here, throw a few words down on paper, have a bit of a dummy-spit in the chamber and then walk out and say, 'Job done,' before putting out a media release saying, 'Am I not wonderful?' That is how I read this motion from the member for Leichhardt. You can come in here and describe a problem, but it is more difficult to actually put up part of the solution. I come back the point that the Queensland government must surely have a role in this and that it should come to the party.

Earlier, I mentioned the biochar project in my area. It is an $8½ million project being funded to the tune of $4.3 million under RDAF round 2 and being run through Ballina Shire Council. This project is a first in Australia and it is something the shire council have worked on for a number of years. There has been a huge amount of work done in the community, which has provided great support. As a result, when the grant came through, all the groundwork was done—they are ready to roll. This project means that they will be doing their bit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as saving money.

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