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

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister. I was delighted to host you recently on a visit to Rockhampton and talk about water infrastructure, namely the raising of Rookwood and Eden Bann weirs. These projects could create 2,100 new jobs as we suffer a downturn in coal. Prime Minister, could you update the House on what you got out of the trip and whether the Commonwealth would consider this as a priority project for Queensland? How far off is an announcement confirming whether Rookwood and Eden Bann weirs have been successful?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. I enjoyed the visit to Rockhampton and the visit to the site of the Rookwood weir at Rookwood Crossing with the Deputy Prime Minister. The three of us share a common passion for water infrastructure. As the Deputy Prime Minister has observed: you can make money out of mud, but you cannot make it out of dust. Water is the source of life. We recognise that the Fitzroy River basin is the second largest water catchment in Australia, but with very limited amounts of regulation, weirs, dams and so forth, so there is plenty of opportunity there.

Turning to those specific projects the honourable member mentioned, the funding applications from the Queensland government, with whom we are working closely, are currently being reviewed by an independent technical panel which will report next month to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. The innovation we found in North Queensland was remarkable. Going beyond the honourable member's electorate to Bundaberg, we saw the Sweet Sensations Farm, an avocado and macadamia nut farm, started by two young farmers from South Africa, Craig Van Rooyen and his wife. They came to Australia, they got a block and they created their horticultural orchard operation. Of course the big challenge was flying foxes and birds. They were a huge issue, costing them 30 per cent of their crop. So what did they do? They are smart people who are technically adept. They got the best advice, and they have developed the most impressive, noisy, lights-flashing computerised drones that swoop out at night and chase the flying foxes away. They have reduced the losses on their farm from 30 per cent to five per cent. What an outstanding accomplishment. The honourable member for Hinkler, naturally, was with us in his electorate.

Northern Australia is Australia's future. It has enormous resources, not least of which are the brilliant and enterprising people who live there. The huge water resources and the huge potential for agriculture there, enhanced by greater irrigation, is immense, and we are putting the dollars behind that vision. We will see great investments in water in northern Australia that will enable us further to capitalise on the huge opportunities in East Asia as that becomes the centre of most of the world's middle-class.