Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will make every effort. I have made the point before: you always know that you are on the money when the members of the Labor Party stand up to interrupt your delivery. Let's talk about what this government has done, because, unlike yourselves, I am prepared to make a positive contribution. I am not frightened to lay down the programs, initiatives and achievements of this government. They have been enormous. This has been one of the most active governments on delivery for the Australian people that we have seen in my adult lifetime. Let's just run through a few things from my home state of Queensland—

Senator Polley interjecting—

I cannot even hear myself think with Senator Polley going off like polly with a cracker. Our Commonwealth government has just lodged about $10 billion into the upgrade of the Bruce Highway in my home state of Queensland. It will affect dozens upon dozens of communities and, more importantly, the economies of those rural and provincial communities and, in fact, some big, proud cities—Townsville, where the good senator's office is; Cairns; Rockhampton; Bundaberg. The investment by our government is going to almost flood-proof the Bruce Highway. It is going to upgrade it for all those billions of dollars of trade and development that occurs up and down our coastline. We are going to have an efficient method—do not go, Senator Polley, you should listen to some of this—of delivery of goods to our ports to underpin our great terms of trade. We already heard today about the wonderful terms of trade figures that came out on the weekend.

This government delivered the Range Crossing. Under Labor they seesawed, they hummed and haaed for six years. Not one thing did they do towards the development of that terrific initiative to build the Range Crossing so that all the products of our trade-exposed nation—over 70 per cent of what we produce, including 66 per cent of the beef sector, a commodity now worth about $10.5 billion to our economy, to your welfare, to underpinning the wealth of this nation, comes down the Range Crossing. Who was it that built the Range Crossing? That would be this government. That is not taking into account the half a billion dollars spent on the Warrego Highway or the half a billion that is now pledged and is in the planning phase to put beef roads all over the state to create a trunk road network up there that will just enhance this $10.5 billion.

Labor wants to talk about comparisons. Let's talk about things like the live export trade. Let me ask you, Senator Macdonald—I know you do not have a calculator, but I suspect you might get this one—in 2011 how many cattle were exported to Indonesia and other places, the live cattle that underpin the massive beef industry of northern Australia? How many were there? I heard you—there were none, because you brought that trade to its knees. There are thousands—in fact, tens of thousands—of families who continue to have that play through their balances sheets, affecting them. There is a generation of farmers who have lost their farms and businesses; industries that disappeared off the face of the planet in the Northern Territory.

What did we do? We reinstated that trade, and now Australia exports more live cattle into the region than anyone else in the world, restoring—though not for the poor people who fell over or were pushed over by Labor policies—confidence in that marketplace and allowing people to build businesses, with the dignity that comes with that, in northern Australia.

Let's just deal with northern Australia. My good friend here, Senator Macdonald, played a very significant and influential part in an inquiry that our government conducted. Where did it end up? What would Labor have done for northern Australia in the whole time they were there? That would be nothing, starting with an 'n' and finishing with a 'g'. Absolutely nothing. But our government put in place a $5 billion—

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

It is good to see you can make a contribution there now that you are no longer the whip, Senator Bilyk. We put a fund of $5 billion in to develop northern Australia, right across the country—