Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was Senator Dodson who was there. You were not, unfortunately. That was a pity, because it was very important for Queensland. Senator Dodson wanted to check something. Since then, Mr Shorten—or Mr Dreyfus, apparently; he seems to control Mr Shorten—seems to be putting different things in the way of that particular resolution of an issue which means real jobs for Queensland. I will be delighted and fascinated to hear what the Labor senator is going to say in relation to federal Labor's position.

We on this side believe in jobs. We understand the enormous importance of these projects to employment in my state of Queensland in particular. Senators will know that in Townsville at the present time there is 10.9 per cent unemployment. In Mackay, there is 6.8 per cent unemployment. In Rockhampton it is 7.2. Even the AWU—not a union that I have a great regard for usually—understands the importance of this and is supporting the Queensland Labor government in its bid to get these projects underway.

There have been over 300 very strict environmental conditions on this proposal. It is one that will be carefully monitored by both the Queensland and Commonwealth governments. Those conditions and the oversight of both governments will ensure that there is no damage to the local ecology or to the environment of that part of Queensland, or to the Great Barrier Reef or anywhere else. Those conditions are very strict, but Adani has accepted them.

This work will bring electricity and a slightly increased standard of living to millions of people in India that the Greens will always talk about at the appropriate time in this chamber—helping disadvantaged people in Third World countries. But when there is an opportunity to do something tangible to help those people, to give them the electricity that the Greens take for granted every day—they can go and flick a switch and enjoy the benefits of electricity—they do not seem to want that to happen to people living in India who do not have the benefit of those facilities.

I will listen intently to what the next speaker will say about federal Labor's position. I hope it will be a rousing endorsement of the Queensland Labor government's position on this, which of course reflects the position of the Liberal National Party of Queensland and the federal coalition in relation to this much-needed project that will help those poorer people in India and will provide real and permanent jobs in a part of Queensland that is currently suffering substantially from unemployment, caused principally by the mining turndown in other parts of North Queensland.

The matter of public importance that we are debating today refers to $1 billion. I am not quite sure where that is coming from or what is being wasted. As I say, any money that might come from the NAIF—and that is a matter for the NAIF board to determine, not the federal government—will be a loan that will have to be repaid at some time in the future. So the proposition put before us today that we are debating is completely nonsensical. It is put up by the Greens political party, who—I am pleased to say—most Australians now take no regard of.