Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator O'Sullivan for his question and recognise, again, his passion of developing agriculture in this country, of developing our water resources and developing Northern Australia in particular. Those in this chamber with an interest in Northern Australia and Northern Australian development would know that Northern Australia represents 40 per cent of our country's landmass—almost half of our country—but it represents 60 per cent of our rainfall. Sixty per cent of the water that falls in this country falls in Northern Australia, yet many of the river systems and catchments there in the North are not as developed as those in southern Australia. There is huge potential to build dams to store more water. When you put water behind a wall, it is effectively like putting money in the bank, because sometime in the future you can release that water and use it to grow agriculture, use it to create jobs and use it to benefit our nation.

The CSIRO tells us that up to 17 million hectares in Northern Australia could be suitable for agricultural production. That is an enormous amount of land when you consider that the land under irrigation right now in Australia—mostly in southern Australia—is only around two million hectares. We will not irrigate all our 17 million, but even a fraction of that would substantially increase the land under irrigation in this country.

That is why we, as a government, are putting investment into our water resources. It is why, for the first time in more than a quarter of a century, we have a government committed to developing the water resources of Australia by putting aside half a billion dollars to develop water infrastructure right across Australia—including in southern Australia, but at least $200 million in Northern Australia—and also a $2 billion fund to help state and local governments to invest their part of these investments.

There are exciting projects all around the country. Projects like Rookwood weir could be a major deal to Central Queensland. We want to get on with the job and get this moving. We want to create jobs. We want to make sure this country has future opportunities to develop its agricultural sector and develop its water resources.