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

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I once had a dream of our country so grand

Where rivers outback irrigated the land

With dams and canals in that wasteland out there

And big inland cities with work everywhere.

Stan Coster had it right when he sang about the dreams he had for his country. He dreamed of Australia as a place where he took the degraded wasteland and turned it into a lacework of thin green, where the rivers flowed to irrigate the outback, and where inland towns have work and industry—wealth and prosperity. Now we've got a chance to make that dream a reality with the Bridle Track Tunnel between Mareeba and Cairns. This isn't just fancy infrastructure; it opens the gateway to four of Australia's six biggest rivers, none of which have waters that are being used.

It's a lifeline for North Queensland. Brisbane has 36 kilometres of tunnels and one million people. North Queensland has one million people but no tunnels. The greater Cairns region recorded the highest death rate on roads per head of population in Australia in the last two months. One tunnel would have overcome those deaths. When the tunnel is built, it will open up access to the giant Chillagoe Mineral Province— (Time expired.)