Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The honourable member would know better than most the sort of infrastructure investments that the Commonwealth has been making. In fact, one of the first conversations I had with the honourable member before his election was about the in excess of $100 million being invested in the Sunraysia Modernisation Project. When you go to Mildura now, you see that $100 million in the better return for those people: the booming almond industry; the booming grape industry. There is real money coming back into the town—such a prosperous town.

That is a real example of how we have turned around the agricultural economy and of how you have seen in the last 12 months a 23.7 per cent increase in agriculture. In fact, no other sector of the economy added more to our economy than agriculture—not iron ore; not coal; nothing added more than agriculture. And that is a great example of good management and good government.

We have also seen $20 million for the South West Loddon Pipeline from the Mallee to the Murray. That is another substantial piece of investment that has been asked for for so long, and now we are actually delivering on it.

But what we have seen from this government goes right back to when the Prime Minister was the water minister, in his first iteration in politics: $13 billion has been invested in the modernisation of the Murray-Darling Basin and in making sure it is environmentally sustainable. This is real investment—massive investment.

We have also seen that we continue to build on that. Our belief in water infrastructure continues on, with $2.5 billion being made available for water infrastructure such dams. We have already put money on the table for Dungowan Dam and for Rookwood Weir. We have got feasibility studies going forward. We are making sure that the Macalister Irrigation District in the member for Gippsland's seat is upgraded. We continue to put real investment here. And this sort of investment also goes to research and development, so that we now have a 60 per cent increase in water use efficiency in rice and also a 40 per cent increase in water use efficiency in the last decade in cotton.

But this nation continues and this side of the chamber continues to go forward with water infrastructure projects, and none better than what the Prime Minister has suggested with pumped hydro for the Snowy Mountains. The largest investment in the Snowy Mountains will happen, as has been put forward by this side, by the government.

And you can say—because I heard them say—that that was their side; it was not Menzies. But it does not really matter, that is so far in the past.

What I can tell you about the Labor Party's side is this: there is only one side that wants to take money out of the dams project, and that is the Labor Party. They do not believe in water infrastructure. They do not have a vision for this nation. They have no vision for this nation. Where is the vision for this nation? There is no vision for this nation because it is a Labor Party policy to rip the guts out of our dams projects. And never once have they had the courage to come to the dispatch box—well, maybe they are going to do it now—and say that they adore our vision for this nation with the Snowy Mountains— (Time expired)

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