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

PM, your great inland highway halved transport costs between Victoria and North Queensland. Ninety-two per cent of Australia has depopulated to under a million people with no firestick farming, no grazing stewardship, with First Australians land usage gone, 72 per cent of sheep gone, 23 per cent of cattle gone. Could you and Minister King call for tenders for Hughenden's water conservation, wind-solar scheme HIPCo, which would turn it and 15 other dying towns into rich, thriving, energised communities? In spite of your humility, won't this make you similar this century's Jack McEwen and Ben Chifley?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member's time has concluded.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy for his question and for his diligence in advancing the interests of his electorate. He has a longstanding concern about water security issues and opportunities in that region, and I visited with the member for Kennedy on a number of occasions and looked at the Hughenden irrigation scheme. I reckon I've been to Hughenden more than anyone in this chamber except for the member for Kennedy, and that is because it is such a critical area for our future economy.

This is a proposal that's been developed by HIPCo. The project would provide around 11,000 hectares of irrigated agricultural area; however, there are some steps that must be taken before it can be construction-ready. A sufficient water allocation must be obtained from the Queensland government, and Infrastructure Australia will need to assess the business case. The Queensland government wrote to us to consider funding for preconstruction activities, which I can tell the member for Kennedy we have now delivered. I will, of course, engage respectfully, as will the minister for infrastructure and, indeed, the minister for water, on this issue about the project and its associated infrastructure.

We are spending some three-quarters of $1 billion on Queensland water infrastructure projects—Paradise Dam, near Bundi, in Queensland; Cairns Water Security State 1 Project; the Mount Morgan Water Supply project, strategic planning for improving water security in Queensland; additional funding towards Big Rocks Weir in Queensland and groundwater improvement and water efficiency in the lower Burdekin, in Queensland. In total, we're investing over $2 billion in water infrastructure. We are investing in the sorts of projects that the member for Kennedy has advocated for over a long period of time, and we're certainly investing in Queensland.

I look forward to continuing to work with the Palaszczuk government, including with my minister for infrastructure and minister for water, to make sure that we can make a difference—just as with the renewable energy projects I visited with the member for Kennedy, including, might I say, 'Big Kennedy' and 'Little Kennedy', which are not named after the member for Kennedy but are important projects nonetheless, as well as, of course, the Kidston Dam project and others as well. This is an important part of Australia that can certainly produce more. It produces a lot of wealth for this country, but there is an opportunity to expand further, and I look forward to working with the member for Kennedy to achieve that objective.