Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I offer my heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped support and encourage me through the 2019 election and to the people of Wide Bay, who put their faith in me to represent them. It's a great honour to be entrusted with the responsibility of being their representative, and I'll continue to provide strong representation to achieve results for Wide Bay. These are exciting times for Noosa, Gympie, Maryborough, Murgon and all towns in between. I'm pleased to have secured significant commitments from the Morrison McCormack government to projects that will create jobs and improve services throughout the region.

We're delivering a new off-stream water storage supply to sustain Maryborough's sugar industry and support 600 local jobs, a great win for MSF Sugar and the Maryborough canegrowers.

I'm looking forward to continuing work with Rheinmetall Nioa to create 178 new jobs at Maryborough munitions forging factory. The investment will put Maryborough on the defence industry map, and everywhere I go throughout Wide Bay there's genuine excitement and enthusiasm about this economy-transforming program.

We're tackling road safety with construction on the Bruce Highway, including Cooroy to Curra Section D. The Coondoo Creek Bridge replacement is finally getting under way as well as new safety improvements, flood mitigation projects and overtaking lanes on the Bruce Highway at Chatsworth, Tiaro and Maryborough. The Queensland government must get cracking on fixing the Bruce Highway intersection at Bells Bridge.

I'm continuing my fight for better mental health and aged-care services. We've delivered a new headspace service in Gympie and another will be arriving soon in Maryborough. There are more beds for aged-care homes and more funding for home packages to help older Australians stay at home longer, and the first tranche of funding has been delivered to Gympie's Little Haven Palliative Care.

We're helping sporting clubs, like the Noosa Dolphins Rugby Club, the Tewantin-Noosa Cricket Club, the Noosa Tigers AFC, the Maryborough Softball Association, the Granville Hockey Club, the Kandanga Country Club and the Pomona Bowls Club. We're improving opportunities in local communities by funding upgrades to the Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum, Independent Riders, Sherwood Hall at Gympie's Avenues Lifestyle Support, Maryborough's Riding for the Disabled Association, Sunshine Butterflies, the Tin Can Bay Fishing Club and the Peregian Beach Digital Hub, and we're delivering a new veterans drop-in centre at Murgon. It's great to be part of the Morrison McCormack government team, which is creating jobs and funding the infrastructure and services to build a better Wide Bay and a stronger Australia.