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

Today may very well be known in the future as the day the opposition finally went mad. All week, we've seen them argue about serious funding that this coalition government has delivered to help secure a strong future for the Great Barrier Reef. We've also seen them sit on the fence when it comes to setting up an energy system that actually works and that provides affordable, reliable energy for everyday Australians and employees alike. Energy prices are of vital importance to people in the bush, but this opposition just does not care.

And then, today, we have this. The very idea that a motion such as this could come from the Australian Labor Party—the very same party that's done everything within their power, in living memory, to ruin and demonise those who live and work in the bush—is entirely confusing. Labor has never shown any interest in the needs of the people in the bush, nor do they now. They simply find an excuse to talk about themselves.

It was the Labor Party which halted the live cattle export to Indonesia overnight, on a whim. Graziers and communities across the Top End are still reeling from this stupid decision made in haste by people who had no idea about the industry they were in charge of. If you combine this with the radical hatred those opposite have adopted when it comes to coalmining then there is very little remaining for regional and rural Australians to rely on in getting a good job under a Labor-Greens regime.

On the matter of the cruel, crippling drought grasping much of Queensland and almost all of New South Wales, I'm confident that the government, while unable to perform miracles—although we sometimes may like to—is delivering what is needed for farming families in desperate situations. There is a range of assistance out there for farmers and graziers, from financial to therapeutic. We need people to reach out and take advantage of what is being offered, though, and I hope that more take up those opportunities in the near future.

What is more important and appropriate for a government to get stuck into, though, is to continue to develop the infrastructure that our regional and rural communities and businesses need to thrive. There is no good in fighting to get through a drought and then not have the infrastructure you need to bounce back and thrive. That's why I have led such a crusade for two vital forms of infrastructure: water and roads.

There is not a Central Queenslander who has not heard of Rookwood Weir, the state's No. 1 water infrastructure priority. Rookwood has been a passion of mine since I entered parliament back in 2013. And when we know what it will do for CQ, we can understand why. There will be 200 to 400 jobs through construction, 2,100 ongoing jobs, a $1 billion boost to the economy and opportunities for all sorts of agriculture development—feedlots, tree crops, timber plantations, small crops, vegetables and agriculture. The sky is, indeed, the limit.

Clearly, what this project can do for the region is immense, and it is only the coalition who are serious about making it happen. It is only the coalition that has invested real money into feasibility studies across the country for new dams and weirs. It is the coalition that has led the process all the way with Rookwood Weir. It was us who delivered the original $130 million to get Rookwood built, as well as $2 million for the state government to complete a business case. We waited over 600 days until the Queensland government finally dragged themselves up to the table, and eventually all of the $352 million needed has been placed on the table. We are ready to go, but for some reason nothing is happening. It's clear the state government continues to drag its feet, and I for one have had enough.

Foot dragging is not confined to the Rookwood Weir project either, with a range of infrastructure projects on the go-slow across the region. We have serious issues with sections of the Fitzroy Development Road, a remote highway responsible for carrying heavy loads for the mining and grazing sectors—utterly ignored by the state government that owns it. Motorists and their properties are in real peril. Meanwhile, major upgrades to the Capricorn Highway are sitting on the books, once again waiting for action by the state government. We're doing what we can to improve local infrastructure, while the state colleagues of those opposite simply don't care. Today's MPI suggests the government is letting down rural and regional Australians, but I can only see one government doing that: the Queensland Labor state government.

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