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

We, as a government, have lots of plans to develop jobs in Queensland. Not only do we support jobs in the coalmining sector, and aren't shy about it; we also want to see jobs coming from farming and agriculture. And wasn't it great news today that we've seen the unemployment rate drop in Australia, with the creation of thousands more full-time jobs under this government.

That's why we've got to push on with developing the water resources of Central Queensland. The Fitzroy Basin in Central Queensland is the second-largest water catchment in the country, behind the Murray-Darling, but it has only one major dam in it. We want to change that. We want to build more dams and more water infrastructure in Central Queensland, to create more jobs. That's why we put $130 million on the table to build the Rookwood Weir. That weir could create 2,100 jobs, double agricultural production in the Fitzroy Basin, droughtproof Central Queensland and underpin the industrial development of Gladstone as well. It ticks boxes all over the place, and that's why we're behind it. That's why we're backing the people of Central Queensland and the farmers of Central Queensland—to give them a future; to be able to create more wealth and more jobs.

Earlier this year, we saw some flooding around the Fitzroy River after Cyclone Debbie came through and did a lot of devastation, and, outside my office in Rockhampton, two Sydney Harbours of water a day were flowing past at the peak. Wouldn't it be better if we had some dams and some infrastructure there to keep some of that water, to hold it back, so that we would be able use it at other times of the year to grow food for our country, to create more value in exports and to create jobs in the farming sector as well? That's what we want to do. We want to get on with it. We just need somebody in Queensland who wants to partner with us. We just need a state government that is willing to partner with us on this production, supports jobs in the agriculture sector, wants to droughtproof Central Queensland and also wants to increase the agricultural wealth of this country and get this nation moving.