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

It gives me great pleasure to speak to the appropriation bills as a strong voice for North Queensland, a region that is strong and resilient. It was built with grit and determination by people who never gave up and who will see it through the tough economic times that it currently faces. The member for Griffith, who spoke before me, used the words 'bold, strong and resolute'. Those were the attitudes that got us through the GFC. I have to say that it was not from the Rudd or Gillard governments; it was from the hardworking men and women in my electorate and electorates like mine doing mining and agricultural work to keep the economy afloat. It certainly was not $100 cheques in the mail, overpriced school halls and pink batts that burnt houses down.

Although this phrase has been attributed to JFK's father, Joseph Kennedy, it is probably better remembered when best sung by the great Billy Ocean in his 1985 hit When the Going gets Tough, the Tough get Going. The going in North Queensland is tough indeed. The much publicised 237 job losses at the Yabulu nickel refinery came after a string of bad news over the past 2½ years. Peabody mining cut 450 jobs in the Bowen Basin. Glencore Xstrata cut another 450 jobs. BMA cut 700 jobs in the Bowen Basin. There were 481 jobs lost at the Callide mine and 727 jobs lost at the Dawson mine. These are just a handful of announcements. In July last year Anglo American announced thousands of jobs will be cut from its operations, including four mines serviced from Mackay.

The regional town of Mackay is the epicentre of the resources downturn. Thousands of homes are for sale and the rental vacancy rate has gone from zero to 10 per cent. The pain is acutely felt in the small town of Bowen, where dozens of businesses have closed down. They desperately hung on for as long as they could—for three years or more—waiting for the expansion of the nearby port at Abbot Point. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

This government is rolling out the largest infrastructure investment program in Australia's history. The most important element for North Queensland is the $6.7 billion investment to fix the Bruce Highway. Major highway projects generate immediate jobs in construction and also result in future economic growth through increased efficiency and productivity. Construction projects under this government have included: pavement widening; safety upgrades; overtaking lanes, such as those constructed at Coningsby near Mackay; the Burdekin Bridge upgrade; fixing black spots in a range of areas; and new rest areas on the highway.

Some of the big projects this government has already completed are the $137 million Vantassel Street to Cluden duplication in Townsville; the $50 million upgrading of the highway from Sandy Corner to Collinsons Lagoon, with the overpass they have there just north of Brandon and the Burdekin; and the $13.8 million upgrade and extra lane at the pivotal showgrounds intersection in Mackay. Other major works currently under construction or due to start any day include the $45 million flood proofing of the highway at Yellow Gin Creek in the Burdekin and the $57 million flood proofing at Sandy Gully near Bowen. Other investments in productivity and road network efficiency under this government include black spot funding, Roads to Recovery funding, and the financial assistance grants program to local councils, which have delivered such projects as a major upgrade to Malcomson Street at Mount Pleasant in Mackay; an upgrade to Milton Street in Mackay; the Melton Black intersection in Townsville, where Lavarack Barracks is; the Old Clare Road upgrade from Giddy Road near Ayr; and the construction of a new roundabout as you drive into the township of Bowen.

Reliable road networks are essential for productivity in regional areas, but the government also believes in building community infrastructure, which creates immediate jobs once again and leaves the community with a lasting legacy. In Dawson, we have delivered on the $17 million public realm improvement in Mackay's city heart; the $17 million development of CQUniversity's engineering precinct, and also extra money that has gone into creating the new city campus of CQUniversity in Mackay; the $750,000 construction of the extension to Mackay Gymnastics' new facility; and the $2.3 million relocation of the Mackay Junior Soccer Grounds.

Since being elected, the Liberal-National government has focused on growing existing industries and creating new ones. That is where major job benefits come from. One of the most exciting success stories for the North is in the development of aquaculture. Pacific Reef Fisheries, which operates a prawn farm in the Burdekin, has been trying to establish a new prawn farm at Guthalungra north of Bowen The process began, I am sad to say, back in 2001, but I have worked very closely with the project proponents to get this farm up and running and through all of the bureaucratic nightmare in this term of government. The final approval, I am happy to say, came from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. It was issued late last year, and Pacific Reef Fisheries are soon to be employing more than 100 full-time staff for their operations and a further 70 to 100 workers during peak harvest times once that new form is constructed.

The largest job creation project there could be in North and Central Queensland right now is the Carmichael coal project. It will create 10,000 jobs, direct and indirect, over the life of the entire mine, including in the construction not just of the mine but of the railway line that leads to the port and the expansion of the port at Abbot Point. All of that, directly and indirectly, will create thousands of jobs. The figure that has been put out by Adani is 10,000 jobs. While the green movement have tried to claim that it is not, it actually is. The figure that they are spouting about is for stage 1 of the mine only, not including the railway line, the port expansion or the indirect jobs that flow on from it.

The federal government has issued all the required approvals. I have to say it is now up to the state Labor government to stop sitting on its hands and issue the mining lease and the final approvals for the port expansion. I believe there are three approvals that are yet to be issued. It is disappointing to see the Labor Party refusing to back this project. I understand that even in the Senate just recently the Labor Party joined with the Greens to vote against a motion calling on the state government to get on with issuing the mining lease.

It is also disappointing to see the state Labor government sitting on its hands with two of the largest Bruce Highway projects in my electorate: the Mackay Ring Road, valued at $540 million, and the Haughton River Bridge replacement, which is also around half a billion dollars. The contract for planning and design of the Mackay Ring Road was awarded in March last year, almost a year ago, and we have the state Labor government telling us that it will not get to construction for another year. The federal government is stumping up 80 per cent of the funding for this project. We have offered to get that money to the state government sooner rather than later, as soon as they can get to construction, but they are telling us they cannot do it. They need to pull their finger out and get going with this project. I have spoken to senior engineers in New South Wales Transport, who tell me a project of this magnitude should not take more than nine months to be designed. Yet we are having to wait until next year through the dillydallying of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her ragtag bunch in that minority government there to get going with this most important project, which will create 600 jobs that are needed in our region right now. They demonstrate no sense of urgency with that project or the Haughton River Bridge upgrade, which is also an important project for safety and also jobs in the northern part of my electorate.

In fact, the only road project between Mackay and Townsville that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk nominated as one that she would be willing to fast-track turned out to be one that was actually fully funded—100 per cent funded—by the federal government, and she said that she was going to fast-track it and bring it on for construction early this year. In fact, on 11 November last year I announced that we were fast-tracking the project by bringing the money forward and it was going to go ahead in early 2016. So they did not do anything there at all. Not surprisingly, a local company, Vassallo Constructions, has already started constructing those overtaking lanes at Thomsetts Road, near Bloomsbury, and that is a great outcome for local jobs—having a local tenderer out there doing the job and keeping infrastructure investment dollars in our region.

Overtaking lanes are also under construction at Alligator Creek near Townsville, and there are some projects outside my electorate that have an impact on local jobs and productivity in my electorate. I include in that the Hay Point turnoff intersection, which is being upgraded, and the Peak Downs Highway upgrades, which include a new pathway through Eton Range and the replacement of bridges under the Liberal-National government's Bridges Renewal Program on the Peak Downs Highway.

Along with all that good work that is being done in infrastructure, we need to prepare for the jobs of tomorrow and get all that preparation work done. An alternative line in that Billy Ocean classic is, 'When the going gets tough, the tough get ready.' Much has been said over the years about the potential of the North, but in this government's first budget we backed a commitment with money on the table for developing the North. It came in different packages and it came in the form of billions of dollars: $6.7 billion package to fix the Bruce Highway to facilitate growth, prosperity and jobs; $5 billion for the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, or NAIF, to provide concessional loans for building the infrastructure needed to create jobs, new industry, and a stronger economy throughout the North; and $500 million for the National Water Infrastructure Fund, with money specifically earmarked for dams in Northern Australia.

The concessional loans from NAIF will develop new ventures and industries and will overcome one of their major hurdles to getting ahead: affordable finance. The NAIF scheme is an incentive for projects such as the proposed ethanol plant in the Burdekin, which will create a new avenue for income for the many sugarcane farmers who are at the mercy of world sugar prices and foreign owned mills which they have to sell to. The NAIF scheme is an incentive for a new bio-energy plant in Mackay. That will expand the region's production of energy from biofuels, which currently includes an ethanol plant in Sarina and the Racecourse Mill power generator. The NAIF scheme is also an incentive for a new freight and logistics centre at Mackay Airport, which will open the door for greater exports, including agricultural produce sourced from the wider region and boosted by the government's commitment to water infrastructure.

Last week, I drove up to the Eungella range, to the west of Mackay, with the member for Capricornia. We spoke to a local sawmill owner while we looked out over the massive water catchment that will become Urannah Dam. That dam will be very deep with a small footprint, limiting losses to evaporation. It is high enough to enable the gravity feed of water to dry agricultural land on the coast and in inland areas, opening up massive new agricultural opportunities. For the sawmiller, there will be an opportunity to mill the timber before it is cleared and burnt prior to flooding. That dam has been talked about for 40 years, but two new developments mean that talk is now very serious. First, private investors are on board, with the support of the local traditional owners, who are also the leasehold owners of the site. Secondly, this government has the will and determination to build new dams and money on the table to support them.

Once Urannah Dam is under way, I will be fighting to get the Elliot Main Channel project resurrected. The channel, linking the Burdekin River to good but dry agricultural land between Bowen and the Burdekin, needs to go ahead. It was partly built many years ago, but, with our real commitment to water infrastructure, the time has come to deliver on the Elliot Main Channel. There is also an opportunity to raise the Burdekin Falls Dam, which was an expansion option included in the dam's original design. Water is the key to agriculture, and investing in dams enables huge growth in agricultural production.

In just two years of government, we have secured free trade agreements with Korea, Japan and China. Together with the TPP, these agreements open the doors to more agricultural exports. Some markets will require faster freight services, particularly for perishable products. There are two airports in my electorate seeking to expand to accommodate international flights. That will create more jobs, not just for exporting products but also with the tourists it will bring in, particularly into Mackay and the Whitsundays. I have sought and received a commitment from the government to waive the costs associated with customs and border protection services for an indefinite period, should the airports at Mackay or Whitsunday secure an international carrier.

I am also working on a brand-new industry for the Whitsundays, where the reef, island and world-class Whitehaven Beach are major international drawcards. It is the perfect base for a superyacht industry. We are close to overcoming obstacles in order to introduce this major creator of new jobs and a source of income for the local economy. A single superyacht reaps $50,000 per day while based in a port such as the Whitsundays.

Another brand-new industry that the government is in the process of creating right now is the cultivation of medicinal marijuana. Now that legislation has been passed in this place, there is an opportunity for growers in North Queensland. I am going to be speaking to people tomorrow about that.

I have more ideas that we can use to build the North. I will be speaking on them in coming weeks.

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