Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently the Queensland Seafood Industry Association had their awards night, and the recipient of the Queensland Industry Ambassador Award was Nicky Shulz from Hervey Bay. Nicky is a local legend. I attended his 80th birthday a couple of years ago—we won't be specific, Nicky! But he is very well known as a local fisherman, running a very substantial fishing business, with trawler operations and processing, and he's a large employer.

I'm very pleased that he's still actually there in the local region, regardless of what the local state government is doing in Queensland. They continue to close gillnet areas. They continue to close fishing areas. Nothing is based on science. The biomass is actually increasing, and yet we continue to see, at both the state and federal level, Labor governments destroying the seafood industry and destroying the local fishing industry. What is wrong with the Australian people having access to Australian seafood? That can't happen unless we have an Australian fishing industry. So, if you want to buy more from Vietnam and you want to buy more from people who steal ours illegally, continue to support the Labor government.

This is just how badly they are going in Queensland. Here are some of the local failures. Yesterday, I'm advised, the new Premier, Premier Miles, was in Bundaberg opening up some social housing. To give you an indication of how bad it is, the Social Housing Register in Queensland had 41,840 on the list in June 2023, and it was 43,782 in December 2023—they are the most recent numbers. How many homes did Minister Miles open? Two. You add that in to the debacle that's been the Bundaberg Hospital plan. That was promised as a level 5 service hospital, not five levels, as the current Labor member of Bundaberg tries to tell the local population.

What have they done since the announcements at the last election? They built a road, and the road goes nowhere. It is just a road that stops and delivers nothing. In fact, it's not the only one. They've also built a road to the planned train manufacturing facility at Torbanlea. It doesn't go anywhere either. It comes off the highway and stops. At Paradise Dam they've just upgraded the road, but they've also announced that they're not actually going to do what they said would do. Now they have to replan it and consider building another wall because of Labor's previous failures, but they're not sure how much that will cost or whether they will have any money in the budget. But they're building a road anyway, so that's just fantastic!

Lastly is the rehab facility. It was a 2020 election promise from the state Labor government, to be completed in 2022. And guess what? They started ground-clearing work last week; now it will be finished in 2025. Guess what's in between? Would you believe there's an election in October in Queensland! So they made a commitment at the last election; they didn't carry it out. Then they start just before the next election, and I'll guarantee you they won't do that either. Good luck to Bree Watson, the LNP candidate for Bundaberg, and to David Lee, the LNP candidate in Hervey Bay. The people should support them.