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

I thank the honourable member for his question and note his advocacy not only for infrastructure projects in the seat of Dawson but also for such things as the sugar code in the cane industry. It's obviously of great importance that we see the investment that's happening in the seat of Dawson. For MackayRing Road stage 1, there is close to half a billion dollars and 34 jobs. For the pavement widening from Bowen to St Lawrence, there is another $12 million. The Haughton River Floodplainupgrade, which we are currently discussing with the member for Dawson, is well in excess of half a billion dollars. The Vantassel Street toCludin Street duplication, the Sandy Gully Bridge upgrade, the Yellow Gin Creek bridge upgrade, the Sandy Corner to Collinsons Lagoon realignment and raising—close to $1.3 billion of capital investment in the seat of Dawson. I would like to acknowledge the hard work that the member for Dawson has done in bringing about more than 1,700 jobs to his area in this Bruce Highway upgrade.

Of course, the Bruce Highway upgrade in itself is a multiple-billion-dollar investment in our nation—$8.5 billion will be the total cost. It goes towards a vision for this nation that goes beyond the seat of Dawson. Our vision is to have a sealed road for the capacity of the traffic that travels along it from the top of Cape York to the bottom of Victoria. This is more than just a pipedream. On the Peninsula Development Road, we've sealed close to 400 kilometres of that 600-kilometre route. We acknowledge that there is still in excess of 400 kilometres of dirt road that goes north from Weipa. We also see the work we are doing on the Midland Highway in Tasmania.

This is a government with a vision for our nation. We know that with good infrastructure come jobs and the development of our nation. Likewise we have a vision that goes from the north-east to the south-west, with such things as the upgrade of the Outback Way. With a combination of beef roads and the $100 million investment in the section between Laverton and Winton, we can have the capacity of a sealed road that goes from Cairns down to Perth. This gives us the capabilities in the future to further open up the mineral precincts around Laverton and also to create an intermodal hub at Alice Springs, bringing further economic growth there.

I think it is incredibly important that this nation has a vision for these forms of infrastructure projects. It is imperative, if we are to develop this nation away from its crescent form, which goes from Brisbane around to Adelaide, that we have the infrastructure projects such as the upgrade of the Bruce Highway, such as the upgrade of the Pacific Highway, such as the Outback Way connecting Winton to Laverton, creating the first sealed road across our nation, and such as the Inland Rail. That is the form of infrastructure that takes our nation to a higher level.

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