Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question and acknowledge his longstanding interest in the development of the north of his state, Western Australia, and his wider contribution to our northern Australia agenda. That agenda is a key part of our government's economic plan to build on the strengths of this nation and the strong economy we already have, and make sure we can continue to grow that and deliver prosperity for our future. Already, the north of Australia contributes significantly to that strong economy.

A recently completed Infrastructure Australia audit of the infrastructure across the north found that in financial year 2013 each employee in northern Australia contributes $369,000 a year to our economic output, almost double the contribution across Australia of $185,000 per employee. It is already a strong part of our country, but it is a part of our country that is going through a transition and some difficult times with a mining downturn, and that is why our agenda to develop the north is incredibly important and incredibly timely.

That agenda includes $1.2 billion worth of investments, over 50 different policies and the establishment of a concessional interest loan facility of $5 billion. Already, we have successfully implemented 12 of those 50 measures, including a northern Australia tourism initiative that was delivered a couple of weeks ago to provide more business advice to the tourism sector across the north—something that will be incredibly important as we move away from the mining boom. We have taken 20 proposals for pilot land tenure reforms from Indigenous groups—and I know that is something close to Senator Smith's heart. We have conducted 13 different consultations on the CRC that we will be developing for the north. Last week, I had the pleasure of being in Darwin for our third and final Beef Roads forum. We have a significant agenda for the north of Australia, which will help our entire country.