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

E (—) (): I thank the honourable member for his question and note that it was 868 days after the Labor government in Queensland basically pulled down the dam they had formally constructed, and 868 days later, it took them to decide they were going to fund fixing up their problem. It took the coalition, the Nationals and Liberals, approximately two days to meet their funding requests so that we could get this dam rebuilt.

This dam is so vitally important for both the people of the city of Bundaberg, in the member for Hinkler's seat, and for the people in the seat of Flynn. I acknowledge the great work that the member for Flynn and Col Boyce have done in making sure that this becomes a reality. I also note the macadamia industry, for which this was so incredibly important, and the Steinhardt family. It was great to look around with Bree Grima to see what we can do with this water now that we're securing it once again—98 per cent of our macadamias get exported, as well as the sugar cane, which is a vital component of the heritage of that area and also part of the future of that area. This is absolutely showing the people of Central Queensland how serious the coalition is and how serious the Nationals and the Liberals are about making sure that we are part of their prosperity into the future.

We want to make sure that this nation becomes as strong as possible as quickly as possible. It's part of our purpose; it's part of our process. Regional Australia is so important in that. It's not the first dam; it's not the second dam. It's one of a myriad of water infrastructure projects that we are building throughout the nation: Rookwood Weir; Big Rocks Weir; the Adelaide River offstream water storage; Dungowan, which started with a pipeline; the Northern Adelaide Irrigation Scheme; and the western irrigation scheme.

You also asked for alternative policies. That's very hard, because we don't even know the names of the alternative ministers most of the time!

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