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

Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for that. I thank the honourable member for her question. May I say that our agricultural production has grown incredibly under this coalition government—in fact, by about 29 per cent since we've been the government. We continue to work so hard that Queensland's gross value of agriculture production has grown by 19 per cent. Agriculture under the coalition government has been one of the great success stories of this government, and we have brought the money back into our nation.

We continue to work for our nation in the building of massive infrastructure. It's very important that we understand that the inland rail—a corridor of commerce from Melbourne up to Brisbane through the inland: Seymour, Wodonga, Parkes, Narrabri, Moree and Goondiwindi—gives the capacity for our nation to grow even further. What we note as well is that, as it grows, it has the capacity for people to have great opportunities out in regional areas. We also note that the Labor Party, on the other side, have no intention of building inland rail. They have not put money towards the inland rail. It's as close as they can get to say it's a good idea.

We also stand behind Rookwood Weir. This is terribly important for the member for Capricornia and the member for Flynn. We have put $138 million on the table for that. The Labor Party, because they want green votes, are willing to flush Central Queensland down the toilet. They don't believe in Central Queensland. They don't believe in the coalminers in Central Queensland. They don't believe in the cattle producers in Central Queensland. They don't believe in the dams in Central Queensland. They believe in nothing for Central Queensland. When we ask the Leader of the Opposition to go to Central Queensland, what does he offer the member for Capricornia? Public transport. A new light rail for Alpha. I don't know what we're going to have. A new ferry across the Fitzroy River. That's about as close as we get to anything positive from the Labor Party, which used to represent labourers. Once upon a time they represented labourers, but they don't represent labourers anymore. There are no labourers over there anymore. So they've given up on labourers. That's a shame, because up in Townsville, with youth unemployment at 20 per cent, what does the member for Townsville do for North Queensland? When is she going to stand up for North Queensland? When is she going to stand up for her people? When is she going to go into bat? When is she going to stand up for the Galilee Basin? When is she going to get that coalmine out of the courts? She won't. The Labor Party have nothing to say for jobs in this chamber. They have nothing but this peculiar art form of parliamentary tactics. Why don't you start standing up for jobs?

While you're at it, we see the new taxes you're bringing in—$130 billion in taxes—and family trusts. They're going to tax family trusts. Let's see who has got a family trust in the Labor Party. The member for Sydney has got a family trust. The member for Batman has got a family trust. The member for Gellibrand has got a family trust. The member for Burt has got a good trust. The member for Wills and the member for Longman—a lot of people in the Labor Party don't believe in their own side— (Time expired)

Mr Snowdon interjecting—

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