Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Duddy is obviously from the Caroona Coal Action Group. I know that Senator Bob Brown visited the area. This amendment is very pertinent to the issues that are happening there. I hope the message is conveyed to the people of the Caroona area that we will support them on this matter, create the numbers so that this amendment will succeed. And we have kept our part of the deal. It also especially pertains to people in the Haystack Plains area, and I know Senator Boswell will have a little bit to say on that. Like Senator Williams, we in this nation clearly have to make the decision whether we are going to treasure prime agricultural land, which is what we as a nation need if we are to maintain our food sovereignty. The more we impinge on that, the more we are setting ourselves up in the future for a huge fall, when we will have to rely on other countries to feed us, which will leave us in a very tenuous position. As Senator Williams rightly said, there is no point in compromising the prosperity of the future and our capacity to feed ourselves for the sake of a 30-year window in mining.

However, in this instance, most of that is covered by state legislation. But where we do have the capacity to have at least some say in what is going on is in this amendment as moved. We recognise that the support of the National Party was sought for this. The National Party, as part of the coalition, has made an effort to work with the Greens to obtain the crucial numbers. This was always going to need more than one person to vote for it to ever get anywhere. I hope the wonderful people of Caroona and Breeza Plains and the Haystack Plains realise that, for something to succeed, you need at least 39 senators to vote for it and you need more than half of the lower house to vote for it. I hope that is recognised and taken back to the people of the Liverpool Plains, and I hope we get a chance to read about it in the Northern Daily Leader.