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

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Australian Government is committed to providing water infrastructure to increase agricultural production and irrigation potential across Australia;

(b) the Australian Government has committed funding to the following projects, which are examples of how the Coalition is serious about jobs and growth in this country, promising:

  (i) $130 million to cover 50 per cent of the cost of building Rookwood Weir, near Rockhampton, with a further $2 million to ensure that the Queensland Government can complete the final business case required for Rookwood to proceed;

(ii) $225,000 to secure water infrastructure for Clermont and Theresa Creek Dam in Queensland; and

(iii) $3 million towards a feasibility study for Urannah Dam near Mackay in Queensland, benefiting an area from Eungella to Collinsville and the northern tropics;

(2) notes the failure of Federal Labor and Queensland Labor to financially commit to projects such as Rookwood Weir; and

(3) commends the Australian Government for recognising the potential of Australia by investing in water infrastructure.

The federal government is committed to a secure future for regional Australians through increased agricultural production and water infrastructure. The unprecedented guarantee of funds for water security by the Australian government confirms our commitment to the future prosperity of regional Australia. However, the Queensland government under Labor is looking a gift horse in the mouth, refusing to move on business cases and construction. Our commitment is resolute and vital for regional Queensland. The coalition government is providing $500 million in grants and $2 billion in loans. Not since the 1970s has there been such a push by the federal government to incentivise states to build the water infrastructure needed to allow regional Australia to grow in the 21st century.

There were announcements with this purpose in the agricultural competitiveness and northern Australia white papers. The coalition government committed $60 million to water resource assessments, feasibility studies and the development of business cases nationally. Half of that funding is for Queensland. This includes $130 million to the construction of Rookwood Weir, $225,000 to investigate water security solutions for Clermont, $2 million for a feasibility study of the Urannah Dam and an additional $2 million to complete the business case for the Rookwood Weir. This unprecedented Commonwealth investment in water infrastructure, which is primarily a state responsibility, is a visionary policy of the Turnbull-Joyce government, designed to finance projects to grow regional Australia. Let us look at what these projects mean for regional Queensland.

Rookwood Weir has been described as a game changer for Central Queensland. It has the potential to create 2,100 direct new jobs in the region as well as doubling farming output along the Fitzroy River. The Turnbull-Joyce government has now funded the business case, completed EPBC approvals and committed $130 million for Rookwood Weir. We still have no commitments from Queensland state Labor. The funds will assess the feasibility of securing reliable, long-term water supply for Clermont. It will open up development in the Galilee Basin through new and upgraded major water infrastructure for Clermont. Theresa Creek Dam will have vital augmentation and remediation works completed.

Farm production is forecast to leap by 8.3 per cent during this financial year, but these opportunities will be lost for Central Queensland as Labor continues to drag the chain. It is time for the Queensland government to look beyond the Brisbane bubble and commit to building Rookwood Weir. The latest advice is that the state government is working on the business case for Rookwood Weir. This is the business case the federal government committed to fund in May 2016. This is all for a project that Peter Beattie in 2006 declared would be built by 2011. In that time, the Western Australian government have completed feasibility studies, committed their own funding and submitted two applications to the Commonwealth government major water projects. It is the same in Tasmania, where the state government has completed business cases for their water projects and is now building them. The other states can do it; it is not hard. The Queensland government just needs to get on with it.

Showing a complete lack of comprehension for economic security, the Queensland water minister, Mark Bailey, has requested that the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund be repurposed for urban water supply. This is a new level of contempt shown for regional Queensland by the city-centric Labor-Green coalition in Queensland. Urban water supply has always been the responsibility of state governments and water utilities. This is not a cost-shifting exercise.

Agriculture is delivering a record contribution to the Australian economy, with exports up 10 per cent and overall production at a record-breaking $63.8 billion. This is no accident but the result of effective policy and funding. Central Queensland will be missing out, because the Queensland Labor government finds one excuse after the other.

I call on the Queensland Labor government to fast track Rookwood Weir with the same level of urgency they applied to funding the Brisbane Cross River Rail. I call on them to fast-track the business case, commit the funds and start creating jobs for Queenslanders outside that inner-city bubble.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome a discussion in this place about the efficient use of our very precious water resources in this country. There is a misunderstanding amongst some in our community who believe we have an abundance of water and soil resources. In fact, the contrary is the case. We do live on the driest inhabited continent in the world, so it is important that we ensure that our water and soil resources go to those activities which produce the highest possible return for our country in economic terms and are used in the most efficient possible way.

I would usually welcome and invite a motion like this from the member but, sadly, this is just a stunt. And worse, this whole conversation that the minister for agriculture and the member for Capricornia are having in Central Queensland is just a stunt. It is a sleight of hand designed to, in some cases, bring people false hope but, more particularly, to blame someone else for not doing anything.

The member for Capricornia cannot have it both ways. Her own policy document says—this is the government's policy document:

We will also fund half the cost of Rookwood Weir—up to $130 million—if the business case meets all the necessary requirements and it acquires the required environmental approval.

Now there are three stages to building a dam. You need to make a business case. It has to be able to pay for itself in the long term. The farmers, who might be relying on that water resource, need to be able to afford the water resource, and that is all part of the economic equation. Then you need environmental approval—a shared responsibility between the state and federal governments—and then of course you need money.

The member for Capricornia is suggesting the money is on the table. That is the line the minister for agriculture likes to use—the money is on the table. It might be on the table, but the minister for agriculture is not prepared to spend that money until the necessary economic case is made and the environmental approval secured. That is exactly what the Queensland government is saying—they will not spend money on the project until the economic case is made and the environmental approvals have been determined; exactly and consistent with the position of the Commonwealth government.

The minister for agriculture loves to talk about dams. He knows dams are a popular thing within our communities, particularly within certain demographics. He never differentiates between whether he is talking about catchment dams, on-river dams, off-river dams, on-farm dams—he does not worry about any of that; he just talks about dams. If the minister for agriculture was serious about dams, he should put a little more detail into his proposals than that. He should stop misleading communities, particularly in Queensland, by suggesting he has got a big bucket of money here ready to go regardless—no matter what happens, no matter what the economic case—and that he would spend it tomorrow, if only the Queensland government would get out of the way. That is exactly what he is not doing when you look at his own policy document.

Just as the member for Capricornia went into the last election, keeping a secret from her constituents—the plan to compulsorily acquire prime agriculture land in her electorate just like she deceived her electorate in the lead-up to the last election—she is now deceiving them once again. She wants them to believe that, if the Queensland government would simply get out of the way, she would be building Rookwood Weir and some of those other water projects tomorrow. That is simply and patently untrue. She knows it to be untrue and she should fess up to her local communities and properly explain to them both the challenges involved in getting these projects to fruition and the legitimate role of the Queensland government as a partner.

The Queensland government is not standing in the way of any of these projects. What does stand in the way of these projects is the deceitful behaviour of this government, always running around promising things they know they cannot deliver before the next election. The minister for agriculture only ever has one thing in mind: the electoral cycle and what he can falsely promise before an election—and of course he worries about the consequences after the election. The member for Capricornia is now paying the price for that, given the way they kept secret the plans to expand Shoalwater Bay. (Time expired)

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the member for Capricornia, a very hardworking local member, representing one of our great agricultural electorates. The member for Capricornia made the very good point: agricultural production has risen by 10 per cent to nearly $64 billion—a massive contribution to the national account, and much of that produce is exported and of course it is a sustainable industry.

The member for Hunter made a very good case for doing nothing—there are a lot of reasons why we should not build dams, and we have heard them all before. It has been around 30 years since we built a substantive dam in this country to provide water for irrigation. I was very pleased when our current minister for agriculture announced our dam-building program in the agricultural white paper, which amounted to—whatever the member for Hunter might claim—$500 million for capital costs to build more dams around this country and another $2 billion in loans. I absolutely welcome that from the minister for agriculture. I welcome his commitment to further the agricultural industry in this country, and of course water is a key part of that.

In my electorate of O'Connor we have a wonderfully productive region called the Southern Forests. It is a big agricultural electorate anyway, but the Southern Forests area, based around Manjimup, Bridgetown and down to Pemberton and Northcliffe, is some of the richest agricultural country on this land. It is set amongst 300-foot high karri trees and is a testament to not only the soil type but also the climate. Unfortunately in this drying climate, our horticultural industries in that area need water security. Most of the water at the moment is provided by gully dams built by individual farmers and we have reached the capacity of that particular system, and also the reliability of gully dams given the variable seasonal rainfall is a little bit suspect.

The previous Western Australian government, through its Water for Food program, has come up with a plan, which I think is a very good plan, to pump water from the Donnelly River, which is not far from the river mouth that flows out into the ocean. They assured me there is very little environmental impact to pumping water out of the river, up into holding weir at the high point of the district, and then allowing that water to reticulate throughout the area. We are talking about an area of around 100 kilometres by 50 kilometres. It will be a large area that will provide additional growth to the horticultural industry in that area and will also firm up the existing water supply. I am a big supporter of this particular plan.

Prior to the election in Western Australia, the previous government signed a heads of agreement with the federal government to look at us funding a portion of that project. It is a project of about $79 million. The state government is committed to providing around one third of that funding, the local landholder is looking at providing another third, and they are looking to the federal government to provide the final third of that money through our dam-building policy. I believe this money will be very well invested in my electorate. We have a strong horticultural area through Southern Forests at the moment, but it is just not on a quite big enough scale to host the big food processing plants we see at other horticultural parts of Australia. Horticulture means jobs. It means jobs for the local people, but horticulture, by its very nature, means the work is a little bit intermittent, so we rely on backpackers to a large extent in that area. To that end, I think we came to a good outcome on the backpacker tax at the end of last year. I know that many operators in the area, now that it has settled down, have no problems finding ample backpacker labour, and the Commonwealth government is now being paid our fair share of tax by the backpackers, which is a good outcome all round.

I am very supportive of this particular project. As I said, I will be approaching the agriculture minister, Minister Joyce, to look for his support for this project. We are at the stage where we have done a high-level feasibility study and the costings are there. We now need to move ahead towards environmental approvals, but obviously there is no point in progressing those until we have the funding secured from the federal government. I thoroughly endorse the federal government's dam building program and look for support for my electorate of O'Connor, particularly in the southern regions area.

Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to talk to the last point of this motion which is to congratulate the government for the delivery of irrigation projects across Australia and bringing to the front here in this chamber the Tasmanian experience. These projects make a difference to regional Australia. Low-value areas of agricultural land are being transformed through delivery of secure and reliable sources of water, but the self-congratulatory nature of this motion does not match the reality of what has happened in my electorate of Braddon and in my state of Tasmania. Every single irrigation project that has been delivered in Tasmania is a Labor project, either delivered by Labor or planned by Labor. These are the same projects that the Deputy Prime Minister likes to take credit for, along with the former Tasmanian Liberal members, the self-styled 'Three Amigos'. It was Labor under the leadership of former Tasmanian Premier, Jim Bacon. He launched the Tasmanian Water Development Plan in August 2001. This was the first time since the 1980s that a government had recognised the value of Tasmania's water resources.

It is not that well known but, beyond the west coast of Tasmania, a large part of the state is in a rain shadow. Hobart is the second driest capital city in Australia and land in the midlands and on the east coast was principally used for sheep farming. Labor had the vision to develop a water management plan, and the first signature project was the Meander Dam or, as it is now known, the Huntsman Lake in the Northern Midlands. The Meander Dam was completed in November 2007, and the momentum for development of irrigation projects continued under the leadership of Labor primary industry ministers Bryan Green and David Llewellyn and former Labor Premier David Bartlett who had a bold vision for Tasmania to become a food-bowl state for Australia.

In 2008 Tasmanian Irrigation Pty Ltd was established by the government and merged with the former Rivers and Water Supply Commission. Tasmanian Irrigation's work has continued on from the water development plan of 2001. The aim of Tasmanian Irrigation is to grow wealth in Tasmania by developing and enhancing the productive capacity of the state's agricultural sector.

Tasmanian Irrigation develops schemes as public-private partnerships, working with private landholders to establish how much water is wanted, and the cost of building a scheme is shared between the public and private sectors. Tasmanian Irrigation progresses the schemes from feasibility assessment through to construction and the operational stage. State and federal Labor contributed $220 million, for tranche 1 projects, over the years 2010 to 2015. There are now eight operational schemes in Tasmania.

Under construction are the Upper Ringarooma scheme and the South East Stage 3 scheme. In total, Labor's irrigation program represents a public-private commitment of over $310 million. These schemes are changing regional dynamics. In my electorate, at Labor's Dial Blythe scheme at South Riana, 44 farmers continue to grow crops, including pyrethrum poppies, and highly productive dairy operations, which they did not do before. The Dial Blythe area lacked surety for water and this scheme resolved that issue.

Tranche 2 schemes are located in Scottsdale, Swan Valley, Southern Central Highlands, Circular Head and North Esk. But when it comes to these schemes the federal Liberal government's record is nowhere near Labor's. The Deputy Prime Minister was recently in Tasmania praising himself for Labor's Southern Highlands scheme. What the Deputy Prime Minister forgot to tell the Tasmanian community was that this project had already been announced and funded by federal Labor, in 2013, through the report An innovation strategy for Tasmania: focus on food bowl concept of August 2012.

Funding for this scheme and all of the tranche 2 schemes was reannounced by former Prime Minister Abbott in February 2015 and not one agreement was signed until last year—three years to sign an agreement to start tranche 2 of Tasmania's next irrigation schemes! The Circular Head Irrigation Scheme, in my electorate, was signed in January this year by the Deputy Prime Minister. Extraordinary. But in government business enterprise scrutiny, in December 2014, the Liberal minister for agriculture, Jeremy Rockliff, was very hopeful that in the next 12 months the federal government would commit its funding for tranche 2, which is $60 million. That is about $50 million short of delivering these projects. (Time expired)

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

I am excited to support the member for Capricornia's motion calling on state government commitment to vital water infrastructure. Water is life, water is production and water is money. We live in one of the driest continents on the planet. Despite this, agriculture is one of our largest sectors for employment: GDP of $63.8 billion and an export value of $48.7 billion.

We all know farm production needs three commodities: sunlight, soil and water. The Lower Fitzroy region, in my electorate of Flynn, is ideally placed for water infrastructure. It has excellent and various soils, reasonable rainfall and tonnes of sunlight. There is a reason it is called the beef cattle of Australia: it has improved pastures and grain crops that support our feedlots. With more irrigation water available, more production and value can be achieved in the horticultural industry—helping citrus, blueberries, almonds and macadamias—and also in small crops and turf.

It is estimated that a project like the Rookwood Weir would see an agricultural boom in the region worth at least $1 billion per annum. It is all about jobs. Rookwood Weir promises 200 to 400 construction jobs and 2,100 ongoing jobs, with the agricultural boom to follow. Federal environmental approvals have been cleared. Build it, and the farmers will come. The question is: why doesn't the state government want to do this? That is for the state government to answer. The coalition has committed $130 million, half of the construction costs of Rookwood Weir, pending the result of the business case to be run by the state government. The sooner this case is developed and announced the better. The state government can make the most of this and have the commitment ready to go.

The member for Capricornia and I have been advocates of the Rookwood Weir for some time, but it does need to progress asap. We should be sticking up for our constituents and, what is more, jobs. Jobs and prosperity are what the Rookwood Weir will bring to Central Queensland. In the past $1 billion has been spent on desalination plants, and they have produced nothing whatsoever, whereas a weir will bring lasting benefits to the region. We have to change our attitude.

I am proud to second this motion because my electorate of Flynn is littered with similar beneficial projects. Some of them are already there, some are in the pipeline, and some need to be funded. The Fairbairn Dam on the Nogoa River near Emerald is a case in point. It has produced so much since it was built between 1968 to 1972—that is how long it took to build. It has revolutionised farming in the Emerald area. We now grow cotton, citrus, table grapes, sunflowers and corn. The developing macadamia industry is a crop of the future, with demand outstripping supply at the moment. So, if you want to go into farming, I suggest macadamias in the Central Highlands. It has made the Emerald economy far more diverse and sustainable. Agriculture is still highly important to that area despite the enormous economic benefits of the coal mines. Coal mines do use water, and they also share in the benefits of having the Fairbairn Dam close by.

Coalstoun Lakes is another area in my electorate that would benefit hugely from a good supply of water. They have very rare earth, and quality crops could be grown in the 6,000 to 7,000 hectares of beautiful red soil. In South Burnett we have Boondooma Dam, which is under pressure now—and let's hope that the rain will come and fill it to capacity. But, until that happens, the farmers of the North Burnett will have their supply cut. Actually, the Tarong Power Station is now getting water out of the Boondooma Dam instead of the pipeline from the Wivenhoe Dam, which was damaged in the 2011 floods. If we can get that pipeline repaired, it will give more water security to the farmers of North Burnett. (Time expired)

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

I rise to deliver a speech on behalf of my colleague the member for Herbert. She prepared this speech, but she is with her community, helping to prepare for Cyclone Debbie—and we wish her and her community all the best.

In the speech written by the member for Herbert, she says that Townsville is currently drought declared and the Ross River Dam is sitting at 17 per cent capacity. Since 16 November 2016 the Townsville City Council has been pumping water from the Burdekin Falls Dam at a cost of over $27,000 per day. Of the 130 megalitres pumped per day, 40 megalitres are lost through evaporation. Sadly, the Turnbull government is doing nothing to address this situation.

The member for Capricornia's motion seems to suggest that the Turnbull government is actually doing something about water, and the member for Herbert has said that is a joke not well received in the Townsville community. Yes, the Minister for Water Resources, Mr Joyce, is constantly spruiking his Hell's Gate Dam feasibility study, which is a follow-up to the first Hell's Gate feasibility study delivered by the then Treasurer Wayne Swan. It seems that Minister Joyce has just copied and pasted the member for Lilley's original funding, with no credit given to Labor. Every time Minister Joyce even mentions the words Hell's Gate Dam, there should be a footnote reference which reads, 'Originally derived by Treasurer Wayne Swan and Cathy O'Toole in 2013'—and the member for Herbert has also asked that I acknowledge that the member for Kennedy was part of the idea. Surely Minister Joyce should give credit where credit is due.

The member for Herbert is happy for Minister Joyce to keep copying Labor's ideas, but she asked him to copy her Burdekin Falls Dam idea. The Burdekin Falls Dam was delivered by the last member for Herbert, the Honourable Ted Lindsay, as a member of the then Hawke Labor government. It has only ever been Labor that has had the grunt and division to deliver water security in North Queensland, and the member for Herbert hopes to pick up from where her Labor predecessor, Ted Lindsay, left off over 20 years ago. The Burdekin Falls Dam was built in the late 1980s but the full vision was never completed. After 20 years of Liberal representation in the Herbert electorate, they are still waiting for the gravity fed pipeline directly from the dam, raising the wall of the Burdekin Falls Dam and eventually adding a hydro power plant.

The Turnbull government says it is apparently focused on addressing water and energy issues. Well, talk is cheap. The member for Herbert says, 'Put your money where your mouth is for North Queensland.' The Burdekin Falls. The Burdekin Falls Dam is five times the size of Sydney Harbour and plans for the full vision and completion have been around since 1977. Although imitation is the greatest form of flattery, the member for Herbert says, 'Trust me, Townsville does not need any more feasibility studies, Minister Joyce.' The member for Herbert needs the Turnbull government to start leveraging off one of the greatest water and energy resources in North Queensland, and that is the Burdekin Falls Dam. To not do so will foreshadow a huge loss of investment in the region and a loss of new industries and local jobs. Families in Townsville are already stressed, and enough is enough. Children are scared that they are going to run out of water. Small businesses like U Bute Turf are being pushed to the brink.

The Turnbull government's inaction is holding Townsville to ransom. There is absolutely no reason why Townsville should be facing a water crisis when access to water is actually the major problem. Just one hour's drive away is a great resource, the Burdekin Falls Dam. Procrastination by the Turnbull government leads to continued stress for the Townsville community. Adding insult to injury, this incompetent government is going out of its way to exclude Townsville from accessing funds from the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund. The tragedy is that Townsville, because of its city status, is excluded from accessing these funds. Drought is drought. It should not matter where you live, you should be able to depend on assistance from the government. Sadly, this is not the case with the Turnbull government.

The Deputy Prime Minister needs to cut the red tape and allow for a portion of the funds to include Townsville, especially if Townsville is to be a pivotal trade supply hub for North Queensland. The member for Capricornia's motion is to be seen in that light. Because Townsville is excluded from the National Water Infrastructure Fund, the Turnbull government will continue doing nothing for the north. It shows you how out of touch the government is with regional Queensland. So I am sorry, member for Capricornia, but your motion to commend the Australian government for recognising the potential of Australia by investing in water infrastructure is nothing but a joke, and Townsville is the punchline. And I assure her that the people of Townsville ain't laughing. And the member for Herbert will not allow motions like this to be moved without reminding people of that.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.