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

Treasurer, doesn't federal government backing of Brisbane's Olympics confiscate $30 billion off North and Central Queensland's coal and copper miners and cane and cattle farmers, giving it to the IOC, whose Paris opening ceremony was an 'orgiastic pagan ritual' denigrating Christianity? Treasurer, didn't Christians abolish slavery, create from a brutal imperium the Pax Romana, and create from the Dark Ages the Renaissance? Didn't communism murder 78 million people? Didn't Gorbachev, the Pope and Charlie Wilson, as Christians, abolish communism? Didn't pagan rituals sacrifice children to the tree and crocodile gods? Do such rituals still live on, Mr Treasurer?

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

Order! The member for Kennedy has asked his question. He will resume his seat. There are a number of elements of that question that I don't think went to the Treasurer's responsibilities, particularly the—

Honourable members interjecting—

No, I heard every word. I absolutely heard every word.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my fellow Queenslander for the characteristically colourful question. I think the House will forgive me for steering well clear of the pagan rituals and the tree gods, and I will spare the House a gallop through a couple thousand years of human history. I want to focus on two important parts of the member for Kennedy's question: one that I agree with and one that I respectfully disagree with.

Where we agree and where we have an affinity is the really quite immense contribution that the workers, industries and employers of regional Queensland make to our national economy. That's one of the reasons why I'm so proud that 71,000 workers in the member Kennedy's electorate will be getting a tax cut and 83,000 households will be getting energy bill relief in addition to the Queensland energy bill relief scheme. It's why I'm so proud of the investments we're making in the Flinders Highway and the Bruce Highway, and it's why a future made in Australia envisages an absolutely central role for places like the North West Minerals Province.

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order. I'm just going to deal with this. Members on my right and left, every member is entitled to ask a question of their choice. The majority of that question was not within the Treasurer's responsibilities. He was asked about the '$30 billion funding' regarding a significant infrastructure project, so the Treasurer is being directly relevant regarding that part of the question.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's certainly more coherent than anything that shadow Treasurer has said in recent times!

The reason I am acknowledging—indeed, celebrating—the big contribution that the North West Minerals Province and regional Central, North and Far North Queensland make to our national economy is that I do recognise and I know the Prime Minister recognises as well that, when we make decisions about roads funding, investment in industry or in the Olympics, regional Queensland and regional Australia are always foremost in our minds, because we know that, if we want the national economy to be strong, the regional economies of this country need to be a bigger part of the story.

Now, when it comes to the Olympics, this is where the member Kennedy and I respectfully disagree, because I think the Olympics in South-East Queensland are going to be amazing. One of the reasons why I think the Olympics will be amazing is that it will be good not just for South-East Queensland but for the whole country. In a way that the Leader of the Opposition does not understand, the Olympics that we just saw in Paris were a unifying moment for this country, no matter how much people might try to divide and diminish us. I believe that the Olympics have the capacity to bring people together, and I think that will be especially the case when it comes to the Brisbane Olympics. I know the Minister for Sport and the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government have the same optimism and the same belief.

And we're not investing $30 billion, as the member Kennedy said in his question, but about $3½ billion in 20 venues right around South-East Queensland. That will create jobs and opportunities right around Australia, not just in South-East Queensland, and that's why I'm such an enthusiastic supporter of the Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.

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

No, the member for Kennedy doesn't get to—there are other forms of the House where the member for Kennedy may raise his concerns.