Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Capricornia for her question. Situated as she is, with Rockhampton in her electorate, the 'gateway to the North,' and certainly the beef capital of Australia, and all sorts of honours of that kind, she is keenly interested in the development of the North. Northern Australia offers enormous potential for our country. We have been saying that for decades. Finally, there is a government that is going to do something about it.

The northern Australia white paper, which will be released over the next few weeks, is a blueprint for action. It is a blueprint to deliver the kind of potential that the North of Australia has. The North is located in the tropical zone, as is two-thirds of the world's population. So the North is uniquely situated to be a place of global leadership in tropical medicine, tropical research, education and agriculture. We need to take advantage of those opportunities. The budget, for instance, included a $5 billion infrastructure investment facility to help bring to fruition some of those vital projects that will be essential for the North—infrastructure like roads, railway lines, pipelines and power stations—to build on this potential.

In addition, we have already announced $100 million for beef roads to ensure that that industry is able to operate for a bigger part of the year so that when the tropical wet seasons, in particular, come through there will be the opportunity to still get to markets. We are committed to additional funding for the black spots and the local roads. That is the kind of infrastructure that is necessary.

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