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

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on how the budget is delivering for North Queensland and Central Queensland, including for families in my electorate of Capricornia? Is the Treasurer aware of any alternative approaches?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. I was particularly pleased to be with her in Rockhampton last week as we spoke to businesses and as we spoke to others in the community about the budget, because the budget is a plan for a stronger economy. It's a stronger economy that we've seen become stronger under this government, so much stronger that a million jobs have been created. A million jobs have been created since the election of the coalition government in 2013.

Those jobs have been particularly on show in Queensland. In the last year, in the strongest growth of jobs on economic record in Australia, one in five of those jobs was created in Queensland. That's great news for Queenslanders, whether they're in Longman or in Capricornia or anywhere in Queensland. One in five of those jobs was created in Queensland. At Coxon's Radiators, I stood with the member for Capricornia and talked about the success of their businesses. The Labor Party want to put their taxes up, not make them more competitive.

But the real issue for North Queensland and Central Queensland is that we're continuing to back in the stronger economy in Central Queensland and North Queensland. That includes the commitment we made of $175 million to the Rookwood Weir and $500 million to support the livelihoods and the jobs that depend on the sound environmental management of the Great Barrier Reef. It depends on the $10 billion that is there to boost the Bruce Highway and fix the issues on the Bruce Highway, including $400 million for the Haughton River Bridge—which is very well known to the member for Dawson. It depends on the $121 million going to the Rockhampton northern access road, which is an important piece of infrastructure up there in Central and North Queensland. It depends on the $1.5 billion for northern Australian roads as part of the Roads of Strategic Importance initiative, which the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the Deputy Prime Minister, has announced. It depends on further funding for the Building Better Regions Fund as well as part of the budget. These are the investments that the Turnbull government is making in a stronger economy for Australia and a stronger economy in North and Central Queensland.

In Townsville, I had the opportunity to visit the site where $100 million is being invested as part of the City Deal. That's part of a quarter of a billion dollars of which every cent will be invested in Townsville as part of the package of measures we've committed to infrastructure in Townsville. The great news about the stadium being built with $100 million of support from the Turnbull government is this: 230 North Queensland businesses are working on that site, 85 per cent of trade packages have gone to North Queensland businesses, 240 individuals have been inducted to work on that site, and, by hours worked, the Indigenous representation is over 20 per cent. This is a government that believes in North and Central Queensland and is investing accordingly.