Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm so glad that the member for Kennedy has raised this matter today because, unlike some matters discussed in this place at this time, this is truly of public importance. The Galilee Basin offers the greatest opportunity for economic development in my region in a lifetime. It's not every day that we as national leaders get to discuss a range of projects that will provide wealth and jobs for thousands of Central Queenslanders and exploit the natural advantage that we have in that part of the world. If we do not exploit our natural advantages, we will fail as a nation and be relegated to the annals of history as the nation that wasted a continent. If we are to continue to compete and continue to be the best, we will have to grow the pie from which we all dine. We will have to grow the economy, create jobs and give people a chance.

I always enjoy my trips to Canberra because I get to witness some of the greatest acts of hypocrisy one can imagine. Those opposite have the audacity to, in the same breath almost, cry for greater funding for health and education while downplaying and outright denying projects like the Carmichael mine. It's just unbelievable. It would appear that those opposite simply don't understand where the money comes from. This is the undying problem with the ALP. Those opposite are like small children watching mummy take money out of the ATM: they don't know where the money comes from, but they know they just want more.

Money for things like schools, hospitals and bureaucrats comes from the government's holdings. Are you following me? The government gets its money by charging taxes. Are you still with me? Good. The biggest source of taxes is by garnered by taxing people and businesses when they make money. I'm losing some of you, but I will keep going. If businesses and people don't make money, there is no tax taken and, therefore, no money to spend on schools, hospitals and bureaucrats. Oh, dear, it looks like I've lost them all. The fact is that my colleagues opposite fail to understand this very point. This is why they allow themselves to be hoodwinked by the militant Greens. This is how they miss the point. They sell out their members and sidle up with the radical greenies, who would have us replace hard work for success with hard work for survival.

It's the greatest hypocrisy one can imagine to know that, while the budget of the Queensland Labor government lives and dies by coal royalties, they are happy to threaten to shut it down. Just last year Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt recorded a budget surplus because of coal royalties boosting to $3 billion. The Queensland government are dependent on mining royalties to keep their record-breaking program of hiring public servants going. Without said royalties, they would be forced to face the dire consequences of their drunken sailor spending spree. Without mining and its royalties we would be in big trouble.

In Central Queensland we have two major coal basins: the Bowen Basin in the east and, tucked behind it to the west, the Galilee Basin. The natural resources within these basins are immense and provide enormous benefit to the state and national economies and to the government's budget. The coal seams of the Bowen Basin provide for thousands of direct jobs and billions of dollars in domestic product. These coal seams are more than that to me though—they are the basis for thousands of families and dozens of small communities across the region. These coal seams do not just create some carbon-emitting hole in the ground; they create homes for so many Central Queenslanders. Why do Labor wish to demonise the very homes of my constituents? Surely no-one opposite would like to be demonised because of where they come for? Why, then, are they happy to do so to the good people of the coalfields in my electorate? Why is it we cannot prioritise economic advantage for rural Australians?

As a National and a passionate regional member, I have seen firsthand just how much can be achieved by pulling appropriate levers to unlock the economic potential of the people in the bush—the real battlers, the men and women of the weatherboard and iron. Why is it that we cannot prioritise bipartisan support for these people and their lives? These are the people who want to get a chance at a better life through the development of the Galilee Basin. These are the people we should be fighting for, not pillorying a project that has all the approvals it requires, more than any mine in our history. It is already employing hundreds of Central Queenslanders for preliminary works.

I say to those opposite: go to towns like Clermont and Alpha where the project is already having a positive effect and tell people there they don't deserve a job. Tell them while you are sipping on your coal powered soy lattes that their jobs are somehow immoral and must end. I know you won't because you know that to do so would be hugely offensive. Continuing the same line in parliament or in Batman is no different. If you don't have the guts to say it to their faces, don't say it in this place.

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