George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation (No. 3) Bill 2014-2015, Appropriation (No. 4) Bill 2014-2015 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) (No. 2) Bill 2014-2015. When this government was elected, the people delivered to Canberra a very clear request to do a number of things. These things were spelt out clearly in the Liberal-National campaign. We were going to stop the boats, axe the carbon tax, scrap the mining tax and clean up Labor's mess. After just one year, the Liberal-National government has already put runs on the board with those issues: the boats have stopped and people have stopped drowning at sea; the carbon tax is gone and families are saving on their power bills; the mining tax is gone, making Australia less risky for business investment; and the clean-up of Labor's debt and deficit disaster is ongoing.

The scale of Labor of the mess left behind cannot be overestimated. The 2015 Intergenerational report: Australia in 2055 forecasts that Australia's net debt position under Labor's policies would put us in the same league as Greece and Japan and worse than Italy, France, the UK, the United States, Spain, Germany, Canada, Korea, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Those countries were already carrying enormous debt levels seven years ago. That was at a time when Australia had zero net debt and a time before Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard got their hands on the public purse strings—and not to forget the member for Lilley.

It was clear during that Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era that Labor set the debt levels of Greece as their target. But just as worrying as their waste on the spending side of the budget was a determined undermining of the economy on the revenue side. Labor's reign weakened our economy, and their allegiance with the Greens, in particular, attacked jobs.

A key focus for t he Liberal-National g overnment now is to rebuild the economy and to create the jobs that families need to put food on the table and that the government needs to fund services. In his address to the National Press Club last month, the Prime Minister said:

During 2015, our priority will be creating more jobs; easing the pressure on families; building roads; strengthening national security; and promo ting more opportunity for all— with a new families policy and a new small business and jobs policy.

To create more jobs and more opportunities for families, the Prime Minister said we must build a stronger economy. He said a stronger economy would provide a foundation for a stronger Austral ia, make everyone's life better and help everyone who is doing it tough. That includes:

In North Queensland we are witnessing first hand the effects of putting politics ahead of the needs of ordinary Australians. At a time when we have seen thousands of jobs disappear from the mining sector, we have seen the extreme green movement actively campaign against projects that would create in excess of 10,000 jobs for the state of Queensland. The motivation of the se extremists is nothing to do with the Great Barrier Reef, as they often trumpet. T hey have used the reef as a weapon to wage war against coal mining.

This has been especially evident in the ir war against the expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal near Bowen in my electorate. Even in the lead-up to the 2013 election, the Greens candidate for Dawson admitted that they would not necessarily opp ose the dredging and expansion o f the terminal if—get this!—it was bein g used for agricultural exports rather than coal exports. This wa s at a time when the proposal included disposal of dredged material at sea. So they would not have minded if that had taken place if it was ag exports, but, given that it is coal, they do not want it.

As a result of the extremists' campaign against the port expansion, including delaying the project through many frivolous legal challenges, a different solution was negotiated. The then Liberal-National g overnment in Queensland and the federal Liberal-National Abbott government pu t forward a land based solution which would place dredged material on land adjacent to the current terminal, including on a man-made wetland area . The affected area where the spoil was going to go was around three per cent of the Caley Valley W etland s. I have to say that the Caley Valley W etland s are far from being a century-old pristine wilderness. It was once a dry flat plain before two gun clubs got together in the 1950s and diverted water courses to create a wetland where they could shoot ducks. So s uddenly the Greens were out t here campaigning to save a duck- hunting pond. The Liberal-National g overnment at the time were not going to be fooled by such a ridiculous campaign . We were on the verge of approving the Queensland government 's proposal when the state election happened and the government changed.

The newly elected Labor government in Queensland was immediately fooled by the Greens campaign to save this duck pond and caved into the extreme G reens and their plan to close down coal mining in Queensland . While the Labor Premier claims a victory by moving the dredge spoil location a stone's throw to the left, what she has actually done is reset the clock on this to zero. The move triggers a new application process and is likely to set the project back by another year at a time when the proponents have said extended delays could place this in jeopardy. I note the state development minister Anthony Lynham has said it is going to take six to nine months to get the application through. We simply do not have six to nine months. We probably have six months at best for everything, including the federal approvals, to get out. It will need to happen if this project is to go ahead this year, and there is desperate need for that to happen this year.

Instead of seeing job advertisements going in newspapers this week, we see these 10,000 or perhaps even up to 20,000 jobs put back on the shelf. At stake is not only the port expansion at Abbot Point but also the job-creating coal mines in the Galilee Basin and the rail infrastructure that would link the mines to the port. These are the jobs that were needed last year. They are the jobs t hat would have been created this year if the Greens were not at war with coal mining. As these jobs have gone begging, we have seen dozens of businesses in the town of Bowen close down. We have seen families pack up and leave from Bowen and the Mackay region and from right throughout Central Queensland. And t here will be more to come because, i nstead of jobs being advertised this very week , as they would have been under the LNP, the project is going on hold once more all for the sake of three per cent of the Caley Valley W etland s, which is a man-made duck-hunting area. There was a time when the Labor Party actually stood up for jobs and stood up for workers and that they wanted jobs to be created for working families. But that time looks long gone.

Already, we have seen the evidence that the Queensland Labor government is getting ready to walk away from its commit ment to end 100 per cent fly-in fly-out operations at mines throughout Central Queensland. In the lead-up to the Queensland election campaign, the now Premier put out a policy document clearly promi sing to end 100 per cent fly-in fly-out operations that are killing local communities in the Bowen Basin. One of the Labor Party's commitments in its policy document Strong and S ustainable Resource Communities is this:

Review, within the first 100 days of office, all existing 100% FIFO approvals. Where a mining operation is located near a resource town or regional community, 100% FIFO will not be permitted.

But just four days after the election there were signs that Labor was walking away from that commitment. In a radio 4BC interview with Patrick Condren on 4 February , the now Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said:

Just for clarification it’s 100 percent fly-in fly-out, so it’ll be about new proposals for mines, so it won’t be retrospective.

It will not be retrospective, yet before the election its policy said it would be.

There is no way BMA's current 100 per cent FIFO mines can be seen as anything but located 'near a resource town or regional community'. If a miner living at Moranbah wants to work at the mine just a few minutes up the road from his home, he must go to the Moranbah airport and fly to Brisbane, get off the plane, get on another plane and fly back to the Moranbah airport. That is because the FIFO workers must fly from Brisbane or Cairns to Moranbah. But even that is not allowed, according to current job advertisements.

This morning, jobs were advertised on Seek that were very specific about where you must live to be allowed to apply for the job. There is an advertisement for mining jobs in Mackay and the coalfields, for 'CHPP Operators/ Fixed Plant Fitters'. And here's the kicker:

Please note only those residing within 100kms of Brisbane Airport or Cairns will be considered for these opportunities

Another ad for a job in Mackay and the coalfields is for 'FIFO Document Controllers', with the ad stating:

Must live within 100 kms of Brisbane Airport.

In North and Central Queensland at the moment there is no policy more unpopular that 100 per cent fly-in fly-out. Even the number of people employed on 457 visas has dramatically reduced under the Liberal-National government. When so many in mining communities and the regional service centres are out of work, there should be no requirement for FIFO workers and there should be no requirement for 457 workers in the resource sector.

If employment in North Queensland is to be restored, the radical green movement, which has hijacked the environment to fight a socialist cause, must be exposed for what it truly is. Governments must see through the lies and deception and concentrate on delivering for families, and that starts with employment creation, with industry, with jobs. We cannot give in to the Greens and their anti-nuclear power stance, as the Queensland Labor government did last week when they declared a ban on uranium mining in the state. Uranium mining is just one more industry that should be a part of the mix for growth in North Queensland.

As a member of the committee inquiring into the development of Northern Australia, I was privileged to visit many parts of the northern half of the continent where potential job-creating projects and development opportunities are going begging. Sometimes they are blocked for environmental reasons. While I support environmental regulation where it is appropriate, at times you have to say that it is highly inappropriate and counterproductive.

In the Burdekin, in my electorate, an aquaculture project was stalled because of ridiculous environmental regulations. A new prawn farm proposed to extract water from the Great Barrier Reef lagoon to feed into ponds. The water would be treated so that it would be a higher quality than the original water and then put back out into the lagoon. So the water would be cleaner going back out than when it came in. But the environmental regulations do not allow it.

There are also environmental regulations that prevent a new industry in the Whitsundays—the superyacht industry. The regulations apply to boats larger than a certain size, despite the fact that smaller boats, laden with tourists, have a far greater impact on the marine environment. The superyachts would carry only a handful of passengers but would make enormous contributions to the local economy in terms of jobs and revenue. A local, Paul Darrouzet, from Abell Point Marina, explained to me that every week one of these superyachts is in dock $50,000 is injected into the local economy. In Noumea, I understand the average stay for a superyacht is a week or more, and they have 200 visits a year—a $10 million boost to their economy that could be coming into the Whitsundays. But, because of environmental regulations, they cannot come.

These are industries the government should be supporting. These are job-creating industries that you would expect to be supported by any party that supports workers in Australia. It is vital to encourage new industry and also to support the industries our nation was built on. It is not government that creates jobs; it is business that creates jobs. But government needs to do whatever it can to help businesses employ people and to keep the doors open—even the doors to the farmhouse.

In North Queensland, the biggest concern for sugar growers at the moment is their relationship with their mill. Since Wilmar announced that the sugar they milled would be withdrawn from the marketing process undertaken by QSL, growers have voiced concerns to me about losing their right to have a say in how their sugar is marketed. I am currently chairing a government task force looking at the need for a code of conduct in the sugar industry. If we do not stand up for the long-term viability of farmers today, there will not be any farmers tomorrow. We need to do whatever we can to lower their costs. The cost of electricity for those farmers in sugar and horticulture is spiralling out of control. Families also face cost-of-living issues with electricity, child care, and an issue specific to the North: insurance. The government is working on these issues because balancing the household budget is as important as balancing the national budget. We are enabling business to create jobs and we are building a stronger Australia.

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