Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

It is very hard for colleagues on this side to retain their composure when there is this constant attack on regional Australia. This is yet another attack on the people of that electorate, the people that the member for Dobell sticks up for. He has been a supporter of the dredging project. One of the hold-ups, of course, is the approval from the Labor Party controlled state Department of Lands in New South Wales. They have to go through all these sensible approval processes, which I referred to in the initial answer. The department will, of course, approve this when a funding agreement is put in place with Wyong. I mentioned in my previous answer the funding agreement that the department has offered, so no final approval has been made at this stage, according to this brief. But the Australian government will fund up to two-thirds of the cost at a fixed cap of $570,000 excluding GST. And I hope that the member for Dobell does go down there and make an announcement that attracts wide media opportunity and that we expose the hypocrisy of Labor on this issue. (Time expired)