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

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. Today I want to talk about two significant industries in what we all know and acknowledge and agree is the best part of Australia, and that is northern Australia—in particular, northern Queensland. There would be no-one in this chamber who would argue with that description. The two industries in the north of Queensland in particular that I want to talk about are the tourism industry and the banana industry. In the tourism industry, I particularly want to talk about a wonderful feature called Paronella Park, which is otherwise called 'The story of a Spaniard's dream'.

Before I get to that, I want to briefly mention another great Australian industry, and that is the banana industry, which is centred principally around Tully, Innisfail, some parts of the Atherton Tablelands and up further, at Lakeland in the north of Queensland. In doing that, I wish to correct a misstatement I made previously when I told the chamber that Australians consume five million bananas each and every day. I was wrong in saying that and I want to correct the record. I'm told by the industry that it's actually six million bananas each and every day.