Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Treasurer, cannot the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and a development bank fund ready-to-go industry and infrastructure for Australia to build its way out of the COVID depression—manufacturing, industry and agriculture. North Queensland is shovel ready and COVID free. Hells Gates Dam, the Galilee rail line and the CopperString electrification project are not absorb-money projects but are make-money projects, to show you and I are trendy back in black, highway to hell. Treasurer, cough up the money. Make money.

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

Just before I call the Treasurer, the only part of it that was a question was the 'can' at the start. The Treasurer has the call.

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy for his question. First, I'd like to say that the government, through its $100 billion 10-year infrastructure pipeline, is making a record investment in infrastructure. When it comes to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation—the minister for energy, who is responsible for it, may want to add to this answer—it has already made commitments of some $8 billion with the projects with a value of over $28 billion as of the end of March 2020. With respect to the CopperString Project, in 2019 the government announced $4.7 million to assist with the costs of feasibility work for that project, which is a proposed transition line between Mount Isa and Hughenden. In terms of the CopperString Project, as you know, it will allow major users in the Mount Isa region to access reliable and affordable energy from the National Electricity Market.

With respect to Hells Gate Dam, the government has paid the first tranche of funding for the project, with initial planning and design work focusing at the Big Rocks Weir area at Charters Towers. I'd ask if the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction would like to add to that answer?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I strongly praise the member for Kennedy not just for his support for aka daka but for his support for a strong mining and processing industry and energy sector in North Queensland. Of course, that's important not just to North Queensland but to all of Australia.

Now, as the Treasurer said, last year we committed $4.7 million to a feasibility study on CopperString. It's an important project, because it offers the potential to link Mount Isa into the National Electricity Market to provide more affordable and reliable energy electricity for Mount Isa and the important industry that takes place in Mount Isa. It also offers opportunity to provide competitive energy for projects along that corridor all the way from Mount Isa through to Hughenden and Townsville. That $4.7 million is there for preparatory work and environmental impact assessment and so on in the feasibility stages.

Can I also draw the member's attention to our commitment recently to a new billion dollar Grid Reliability Fund to be administered by the CEFC, as you mentioned in your question. That billion dollar Grid Reliability Fund is very focused on transmission projects that are making energy more affordable, more secure and more reliable for places like Mount Isa. I strongly encourage you and the proponents of the projects to continue your discussions with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer inform the House how the Morrison government's comprehensive range of economic measures are protecting lives and livelihoods as we build a bridge to recovery?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for her question and acknowledge her deep background and experience, particularly working for the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and as a journalist prior to entering this place. She, like other members of this House and across the nation, know the significance of the economic shock that has occurred both globally and domestically as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. We've seen some 33 million jobless claims being made in the United States. We've seen here in Australia the Treasury forecast GDP to fall by some 10 per cent and unemployment to rise to some 10 per cent, and we've seen the information that I detailed in the House yesterday: new house sales falling dramatically and new motor vehicle sales falling dramatically as well as falls in consumption and in business investment.

We have made some $320 billion of financial commitments, and central to our financial commitments has been the JobKeeper program—a record wage subsidy that will assist in maintaining the formal connection between employers and employees, for example Central Audio Visual. This is a family owned business in South Australia, in Adelaide, that provides TV screens, lecterns and microphones for conferences, expos, AGMs and sporting events. Ashlea Malcolm, from that business, contacted the member for Boothby and said that as a result of the limits on outdoor and indoor gatherings they lost thousands of dollars worth of bookings within hours. With no income, they had to make the heartbreaking decision to stand down all their staff without pay, and their hardworking and loyal staff were left without income.

According to Ashlea Malcolm, the JobKeeper package has helped save their business. She said that it has 'acted like a glue for small business owners and employees'. They've spent the last six weeks devising in-house training programs to upskill their technical crew, and they've spoken about the mental health advantages that it's had for their staff to be on the JobKeeper program. They've also benefited from the cashflow boost, as well as the arrangements that we have been discussing with the banks to provide deferrals of loan repayments. Ashlea Malcolm says to the member for Boothby—and it's important for this House to recognise this—that, given that their industry relies on large gatherings, they'll be one of the last to return to normal but they're fortunate that the concerns of small business owners were listened to and acted upon by the Morrison government.