Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In Canberra last week, it was my pleasure to host the mayors from my region. Bill Lowis from the Burdekin, Jenny Hill from Townsville, Rodger Bow from Hinchinbrook, Frank Beveridge from Charters Towers and Alf Lacey from Palm Island formed a delegation with the Townsville Chamber of Commerce and Townsville Enterprise to push the collective story to Canberra. As a group, we were able to speak to the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the ministers for Trade and Investment, Finance, Justice and the assistant minister for infrastructure. We were able to throw a rope around the government senators from Queensland so that the mayors understood that we are not a government tied to the big cities but that we have a strong representation throughout the regions. We spoke of our plans and our vision for the future. To each minister I say thank you for being frank and open to the discussion.

We have now been given a helpful direction. We have an opportunity to map out bold plans when it comes to investment and infrastructure. My region represents the largest population based in Northern Australia and we need to ensure that we are able to place projects of interest in front of people who understand us and our region. My region will lift its eyes and go for economy-changing projects which will take us further into this century better prepared and bring us closer to Asia and our Melanesian neighbours such as Papua New Guinea. This was a great event organised by Tricia O'Callaghan from Townsville Enterprise. My region is all the better for it. I thank the House.