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

This is a very exciting arrangement, because it's the first time that we have taken the City Deal-type approach to a smaller community in our nation. We've done significant investments and deals with other larger cities around Australia, but it's great that we are also focusing on areas like the Barkly region and Tennant Creek to make sure they get sufficient focus from our nation's government. We are investing, or have already committed, $45 million in that community in a variety of projects. A very exciting one we did was to get radar services properly established there. During the floods in north-west Queensland we saw how important radar is in those parts of the world. Senator Macdonald knows that well. We're investing $16 million to increase housing supply and reduce overcrowding. We also have various investments in mediation services for youth and for reactivating sporting leagues and creating a business hub in the Barkly region to help the Territory get ahead.