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

My question is for the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on new export markets for Australian agricultural exporters, particularly for red meat processors in my electorate of Flynn? What are the obstacles in the viability of this industry and in the jobs it creates for hardworking Australians?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. I note the honourable member's hard work in such things such as making sure we drive ahead with the Rookwood Weir—trying to get a new dam built in Central Queensland. It is very important. To the honourable member, we are not getting much support from the Queensland Labor Party—none at all. They are pretty hopeless.

The honourable member understands all about what it is like to do a day's work. He has been a fettler, a miner, a truck driver. He understands what it is like to work and he understands how important blue-collar jobs are. I note that in the gallery I have Peter Petty. He has been a farrier. He has knocked a few sets of shoes on horses. He has Greg beside him and Mick Pearce. They are all people who have done a day's work. It is very important. We want to stand up for people who actually go to work and do a job. They might not have gone to university, they might not have been a union official, they might not have had the luck of becoming a teacher, but they get a job as a manufacturing worker. To do that, of course, you are going to need either cheap wages—and we do not want those—or cheap power.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

I do not know whether the member for Grayndler has ever worked. I know the member for Grayndler has never done any work. He tries to be the bovver boy; he is more the St Mary's Cathedral boy. That is the member for Grayndler. He cannot even get a question. It is very important that we understand the markets that we are opening up—

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Gorton will leave under 94(a).

The member for Gorton then left the chamber.

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

especially the chilled market with China. We have really turned around the price of cattle. We have turned around the price of sheep. We have made sure that our rural exports have increased by 29 per cent since the Labor Party was in government. We are doing everything in our power to make sure that we get affordable and reliable power, especially to the people of North Queensland where youth unemployment is at 20 per cent. You would think that the Labor Party—especially those around Townsville—would be standing up for cheap power. You would think that those around Townsville would be talking to the Leader of the Opposition to make sure that he can say these words: coal-fired power. But he will not. It is not possible for him to say those words. He does not believe in those words. He does not believe in Labor, especially around Townsville. He does not believe in Labor around Townsville at all, but you know that. You know that he is not going to stand up for working men and women.

It is really important that we understand if we are going to stand behind those meatworkers in Rockhampton in the member for Capricornia's seat, that we have the ability to get baseload power, renewable and affordable, into those meatworks. That is the sort of delivery that we are doing, because we are going to make sure that we drive forward and we work with our state counterparts to do such things as build new coal-fired power stations, which is something the Labor Party will not do, because the Labor Party—and I say this to those from Tenterfield and from Uralla—are owned by the Greens. They have given up on labourers. They no longer believe in labourers. They are a pathetic shadow of what Curtin and Chifley used to be. (Time expired)

Dr Aly interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Cowan will leave under 94(a).

The member for Cowan then left the chamber.