Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I did that before in deference to your ruling, but I was just asking you to reflect on that and let me know, and you have done that. I find that surprising as I was not aware of it, but I live and learn. Let me say that GetUp!, which as everyone knows is just an offshoot or front for the Greens political party, were telling deliberate lies and they always do.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia's greatest natural assets. That is why people come to Australia. That is why we have to look at this Customs Amendment Bill to improve matters to allow foreign visitors, and Australians, to see great natural assets like the Great Barrier Reef. It disturbs me that, for as much as Australia promotes the Barrier Reef, you have the Greens political party and GetUp! misleading the public on this.

As I started to say, the Greens political party, GetUp! and their cohorts talk about the damage to the reef from dumping spoil. They only seem to have had this concern since the government change. When the previous Labor government dumped millions and millions of tonnes of spoil not on the reef but near the reef, you never heard a word from the Greens political party or GetUp! It is simply a political tool and action by people who I call un-Australian.

On that note, I might just congratulate the Speaker of the House, who led an Australian delegation to the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Quito in Ecuador. I congratulate Mrs Bishop on the role she played in promoting Australia and promoting the Great Barrier Reef and exposing the lies of the Greens political party—can I say that?—or exposing the misinformation of the Greens political party and the lies of groups like GetUp!, deliberately seeking to destroy Australian industry.

I just want to move on very quickly, talking about customs issues, to give all praise and credit to Mr Tony Abbott, Mr Ewen Jones, Mr Warren Truss and Ms Julie Bishop for their announcement just last weekend about the opening of the Townsville International Airport to international flight activities. One of the problems with flights out of Townsville was the cost of Customs officers, because there are not Customs officers permanently based at the Townsville Airport, and that has been a restriction or an impediment to international flights, because it meant whoever was doing the international flights had to pay to bring Customs officers from Sydney, Brisbane or Cairns to Townsville to service a three-times-a-week service. I am delighted that—as a result of the fabulous work done by Ewen Jones, the member for Herbert, by George Christensen, the member for Dawson, by Townsville Enterprise Limited and by Townsville Airport Limited—the government has agreed to assist with the cost of Customs officers so that international flights can start from Townsville to Bali, Singapore and beyond. I understand that, as well as AirAsia, Jetstar are also looking at these new services.

It will mean a huge boost for tourism into Australia and a huge boost for tourism from Australia to Bali—and anything we can do to help the Indonesians I am always very keen to support. It will build relationships between Australia, particularly northern Australia, and Indonesia, and it is a great initiative. It got overlooked a little bit last weekend, with other things attracting the news, but Tony Abbott was in Townsville with the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, with Warren Truss as transport minister and, importantly, with Mr Jones to make those announcements to really set Townsville aflame, one might almost say, in the international tourism market and in international air flights from Townsville to Asia. All credit to Ewen Jones. It is something he has worked on assiduously over many months, and I am delighted that he has achieved success. I thank Tony Abbott for his understanding and his ability to make that happen. It will pay for itself in spades over a period of time. It is a good investment, and again it is a good example of this government continuing to work in Australia's interests, continuing to promote Australia as a great tourism destination and continuing to support the hospitality industries in Australia and particularly in the North.

With those few remarks on this relatively uncontentious technical bill, I will conclude, but I again congratulate the minister on fixing these technical breaches. I thank the opposition for its support for these amendments. As chairman of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, which investigated the bill, I again thank members of the committee and the secretariat for their support in looking into this bill.