Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Hawke would get that reference, obviously. It's a common theme of those opposite to talk about important projects but fail to deliver them. They talked about an anticorruption commission but it took a Labor government to deliver it. They promised a budget surplus, but after nine years in office all we saw were plenty of mugs, but they couldn't deliver. A Labor government delivered a budget surplus in just one year, and then the first back-to-back surplus in almost 20 years.

They talked about the beef corridor projects, but it's taking a Labor government to actually deliver them. The coalition, when it came to the beef corridor, were more of a beef substitute—sort of like a tofu or something like that. In government they were all talk and no action; all announcement, but no delivery; big hat, no cattle. These are the people we're supposed to believe can build and regulate a safe nuclear power plant inside a decade. I wouldn't trust them to deliver a pizza. The coalition allocated fake funding for the Queensland beef corridor and—as we just heard from the former speaker—before any due diligence was done to ensure its readiness for delivery.

As a representative of the great state of Queensland, I'm very happy to inform the House—and particularly the member for Hawke, who is following this debate closely, and the member for Capricornia—that the Queensland government has now undertaken the appropriate due diligence and is proceeding with construction. I know this will come as a shock to those opposite, but to actually deliver projects like the Queensland beef corridor, you need more than just a press release. You need proper design, consultation and procurement—especially in some of the regions where Labor is a little bit short because there's a little bit on in Queensland at the moment. All of those take time. Our focus in government is on actually delivering projects, not just announcing them.

This talk from the opposition about delays is quite interesting. As the member for Capricornia knows, the government has made available $401 million of actual funding, with the Queensland state government contributing $100.2 million. In March of this year the Queensland government announced the first stages of construction would begin with the Clermont-Alpha Road in the Mackay, Whitsunday and Central West districts; the Alpha-Tambo Road in the Central West district; the Fitzroy Developmental Road—which I've travelled a few times; and the May Downs Road all to receive improvements as part of the Queensland beef corridor projects.

The Queensland beef corridor basically spans an area of 218,000 square kilometres right across Central Queensland. We're all about getting it done and servicing this important trade part of Australia. It demonstrates our commitment to rural Australia and rural Queensland. In fact, this Labor budget delivered $21.6 billion for Queensland. There are seven local councils involved in upgrading this critical network of road and improving access to the port of Gladstone.

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