Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, that's so important. Until the rain falls, until the crops and grasses return and until restocking takes place, we must be in there with them and alongside them. You don't realise the value of water until the well runs dry. Since I've been in parliament, since 2010, we've had three major floods in Central Queensland. However, unfortunately, we did not capture enough of that water to make it easier in these hard drought times.

Australia is renowned for floods and droughts. We must get smarter at containing some of that water that rushes down the Fitzroy River and the Burnett River, destroying houses and farmland as it rushes out to sea. And the freshwater actually damages the Great Barrier Reef. This could be alleviated, to a degree, if we could save five or 10 per cent of that water from going out to sea. We could put it in our dams, in our weirs, on farm storage. It is very important. It is a part of our government policy to do that, to have that capture of water that is wasted and does damage to our reef as it rushes out.

Dairy farmers, egg farmers—the egg industry has to pay more for its grain now. I went to a farmer in the Biloela-Goovigen area. He said that if he could get electricity prices down he would grow more lucerne. He has the paddock, the storage and the water but he can't cope with the electricity prices of pumping that water onto his lucerne crops, which he'd give to farmers who were less fortunate than him. The drought in my area is not as intense as it is in the Maranoa and areas of New South Wales—New England all the way down to Orange—and it's now into parts of Victoria. It's a widespread drought, but we will help these farmers the best we can.

We already know the measures we've taken around farm household allowances, farm management deposits, the RIC concessional loans, the Great Artesian Basin and rural financial counselling services, and water infrastructure is a must. We have money put aside in our budget to do just that—$72 million in investment and feasibility studies. We've finally got Rookwood Weir almost started; we almost have shovels in the ground. That's been a long fight with the Labor government in Queensland. I'm afraid to say, they're very much anti-dams and weirs but they have come to the party, on this occasion, and supported that dam, with 50 per cent their cost and 50 per cent federal government cost. I thank them for that. It's important that we get shovels in the ground and get that job started.

There's more paperwork to be done. That should be finalised in October. And there'll be shovels in the ground in early 2019. That cannot come quickly enough for farmers in my electorate. Droughtproofing that particular area will be of great advantage to us and will be money well spent. (Time expired)

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