Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

It will not surprise you that there are further formal and informal discussions to be held with individuals and interest groups from around Australia and around the world. We have, for example, already conducted a beef roads forum in Rockhampton and will be conducting subsequent fora in Darwin and in Kununurra. The $100 million beef roads program was announced in the northern development white paper, and it will dovetail with $600 million worth of priority roads projects and the $8 billion national highways program to create a system of supply chains that will span the breadth of the nation and provide producers and communities with greater certainty and profitability. So the Northern Australia Investment Forum is just the beginning, Senator Macdonald. It was held in Darwin, as I said, the gateway to the north, and it will build on the free trade agreements, which are opening up big new markets for Australian exports across all sectors of industry.