Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is indeed a privilege to be able to stand in this parliament, having returned for my third term, and continue on with the work that the good people of Wright have asked me to continue on with—because there is unfinished work in the electorate of Wright. And what a picturesque and diverse electorate it is.

In dealing with the amount of diversity we have across the electorate there is one issue that underpins and brings my electorate together, and that is their want for exceptional telecommunications. Before coming to this place the former rollout plans for the NBN, under the former government, were that we were not going to see a bobcat or a shovel turning the soil until the year 2022.

I am very proud to have fast tracked the rollout of the NBN through our electorate. To date, we have no less than 18,500 premises across Wright hooked up and NBN ready, either through fibre-to-the-node technology or through wireless technology. My own home is on wireless and I am being schooled, very quickly, by a young daughter who is all over the advances of technology. Furthermore, up to 75 per cent of the electorate of Wright is expected to be connected to the fibre to the node or wireless technology by the end of 2018.

Throughout the long election campaign The Mount Lindesay Highway was front and centre. It is one of the main arterial roads that move from Brisbane down to Beaudesert. I was very proud during the campaign to have committed $10 million and we have asked the state government to match that funding. I am sure the Queensland government sees the priority in putting $10 million on the table to address some of the concerns around Mount Lindesay.

Front and centre in my electorate also is the importance of our horticultural and agricultural sector. It is the largest contributor to GDP in the electorate by far and the associated industries that go with it. A buoyant agricultural sector means buoyant regional communities. The backpacker tax had strong tentacles into the community and I was pleased when the Treasurer recently made an announcement in and around the review of the backpacker's tax, which looked at shifting the rate of tax from 32.5 per cent back to 19 per cent.

I was pleased that we will play a role in taking a 95 per cent withholding provision on the superannuation of backpackers. It is salient that we will look at increasing the age limit from 30 to 35 for backpackers and the provision that we have allowed to give backpackers the flexibility to move from region to region yet staying with the same company. We have growers in our area that might have large contracts—producing lettuce or celery or tomatoes—who will have operations in north Australia, Central Australia and southern Australia. They will use those geographical landscapes to plan particular windows to hit markets.

In addition, the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing has no less than $1.4 billion worth of road infrastructure underway. It is well beyond planning. There are graders and there are dozers, as we speak, and it is Australia's largest inland road infrastructure project. I am proud that the majority of that will be constructed in my electorate.

We have also committed $10 million to the Bromelton intermodal rail hub, a remarkable piece of infrastructure. When partnering with private enterprise you really get to see how effective private enterprise can be when partnering with government. SCT Logistics, Specialised Container Transport, is the company that put $30 million of their own money into this project. We made the announcement a number of months ago and expectations are that the first train will be rolling into their facility and rolling out the first thousand jobs, both direct and indirect, by 15 January of next year. It is a truly remarkable undertaking and I look forward to working with those guys as we develop the region.

Of course, jobs and growth in the region are a priority and we will always continue to advocate for our pensions and our veterans in Wright who provide, historically, a blanket of security for us as returned servicemen so that we can live the life that we so well deserve. In addition to that, Yarrabilba precinct—I am proud to say—is the fastest growing precinct in Queensland.

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