Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. On 22 July 2021, the Prime Minister sat in the ABC Wide Bay studio and said 'Paradise Dam should be fixed and should be fixed as soon as possible'. On 9 March 2022, the Labor government committed to rebuilding Paradise Dam, but in the federal budget the funding to restore the dam has been cut from the National Water Grid Fund. Why is the Prime Minister breaking another promise to regional Australia?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for the question and I'd like to remind him that he is a member of a party that promised 100 dams and built two—two very small ones. We will continue to invest in water infrastructure. We know it is important. We have committed $600 million to Paradise Dam. It is in the future. We are working with the Queensland government on that.

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

$600 million?

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

Order! Member for Hinkler, I would like to hear the answer.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've seen the budget papers, don't worry. I've looked at them very closely, thank you. You might be interested in knowing that one project, for example, that you never delivered on was the $30 million to build a pipeline to Mount Morgan. Why did we do that? Because they were trucking water for three years! Why didn't you, in any of your 10 wasted years in office, actually deliver something for the people of Queensland?