Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would remind Senator Ayres of our visit to Whyalla, where we heard from GFG with respect to their proposal to introduce an electric arc furnace into the steelworks at Whyalla to modernise that facility, an extra $125 million, approximately, of up-front capital cost because of the instability in the South Australian electricity grid caused by its reliance on wind and solar. I hope, Senator Ayres, that the steelworks at Whyalla doesn't close down and those jobs don't disappear to Ohio as well.

I rise today to speak about a concerning situation I came across during a trip to Longreach and Winton, when I was visiting to attend the Outback Queensland Tourism Awards. I went through a journey of emotions. First, there was the delight of attending the Outback Queensland Tourism Awards. A number of fantastic contributors to the Queensland tourism industry were recognised, including Stewart Benson, Stewie, from Blackall, who was awarded the Vince Evert Award for outstanding contribution to tourism for his work in making sure that the droving culture is respected and honoured in his home town of Blackall; the Festivals and Events winner was the Big Red Bash out at Birdsville; Cultural Tourism, Qantas Founders Museum; Outback Eco Project, the Australian Age of Dinosaurs project; Visitor's Choice Best Outback Queensland Stay, Saltbush Retreat; Tour and Transport Operations, Outback Aussie Tours—good people achieving great things in outback Queensland for the tourism industry, creating jobs in the regions.

And then, unfortunately, as the Palaszczuk-Trad government is wont to do, I was brought down to earth when my host, Lachie Millar, took me to meet some participants in the kangaroo processing and harvesting industry who'd just received some advice from the Queensland government with their quota for the 2020 year. Ben and Liza Cameron of Western Game Processing Pty Ltd have done their bit for regional Queensland. They established a business in the kangaroo industry, employing 18 staff, including two meat inspectors. They've been upskilling staff so that there are now 50 accredited Longreach macropod harvesters. They've established chiller and buying facilities at Barcaldine, Winton, Aramac and Isisford, and they also engaged and hired five local chiller box operators. They've done their bit. They've invested $2 million of capital in Longreach. And then they get this letter on 28 October 2019 from the Palaszczuk-Trad government, which tells them that their company, Western Game Processing Pty Ltd, can now apply for their 2020 licence. So they read the letter—they weren't given any notice of any of this—and then they get down to the last paragraph, which says: 'Oh, by the way, there will be no harvest in 2020 in the central zone north of the eastern grey kangaroo; no harvest in the central zone south of the eastern grey kangaroo; the common wallaroo, no harvest.' Apply for your licence, but you get no quota. Thanks for that, Palaszczuk-Trad government. You really understand the regions, don't you?