Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

During the break I had the opportunity to visit the far north of my home state of Western Australia—indeed the far north of our country—where I was able to see firsthand how wilderness preservation can sit very comfortably with resource-and-energy development and in the process set Indigenous communities on a path of prosperity and greater independence.

This afternoon I rise to talk about the sense of optimism that I saw on that trip across the Kimberley region just a week ago. Indeed optimism has returned in spades to the Kimberley region, which is in my home state of Western Australia. At Kununurra I witnessed the first chia crop in the history of the Ord being harvested. I visited Broome, where cattle producers are receiving the highest prices ever for their export cattle. At Noonkanbah Station outside of Fitzroy Crossing—people who know a little bit about the Indigenous history of the far north of Western Australia will know the history around Noonkanbah Station—it was great to meet an icon of that historical record, Dickie Cox, while I was out there meeting with the Indigenous community. Much is happening across the Kimberley and across the Fitzroy Crossing valley.

I was also pleased to meet with the Yungngora people, who are working with Buru Energy to unlock one of the largest gas reserves in the nation, the Canning super basin. There is a great sense of optimism seen in the development of Australia's biggest prawn farm, Project Sea Dragon, a $1.45 billion project, on the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia, which will revitalise Wyndham Port. Optimism is seeing the development of a new abattoir on Yeeda Station which has secured lucrative export contracts with China. It is an optimism that has been brought about by the commitment of this government to northern Australia.

This is a government that has succeeded in negotiating free trade agreements with Japan, Korea and China, agreements that will ensure jobs, prosperity and business success for our northern regional communities. This is a government that has committed $5 million to conduct an examination of the economic feasibility of the development of stage 3 of the Ord River project in Kununurra. This is a government that is spending $100 million to improve the cattle supply chains through a northern Australian beef roads fund.

At the end of this month I am looking forward to travelling back up to the far north of my home state of Western Australia to travel the Tanami Road with the state roads minister Mr Dean Nalder and the Northern Territory government representative, to see for ourselves not just the very tardy condition of that road—and I think calling it a road is a bit of an exaggeration. Have you travelled on it, Mr Acting Deputy President?