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

The greatest thing about the government's commitment to build and develop northern Australia is the benefits it is providing to the people of northern Australia, particularly through better infrastructure. Across northern Australia over the last few years we have invested in and are building 37 different road projects, dedicated to improving access and productivity for our beef sector, the first beef roads program for decades, and to investing in infrastructure that supports our agriculture, mining and tourism sectors. Altogether now this project has helped seal 480 kilometres of roads. That is enough to drive from here all the way to Newcastle. For those of us who are driving back to Sydney after this week, we have sealed all those types of roads across northern Australia—and further, on the way to Newcastle as well. Seventeen of those projects are completed. Seventeen are underway as we speak, creating jobs at the moment, and three will be completed by the end of next year.

Altogether those 37 projects are creating 2,400 jobs across northern Australia. I am particularly proud of the jobs they are providing for Indigenous communities. Every road has to have an Indigenous employment participation target. For some roads over half the construction workforce are from Indigenous communities. There are roads like the Hann Highway, which will create the first sealed inland route from Cairns down to Melbourne. It will save eight hours off the journey. It will particularly help our horticulture growers get their product to market faster. As Alison Murphy from upper North Queensland says:

The trucks will do a lot better times because it's about 800 kilometres shorter to go from towns to Melbourne—

to Townsville along this route we are building. We are also building the Tom Price to Karratha corridor, which is going to open up mining opportunities in Western Australia, and also Alice Springs to Halls Creek, the Tanami Road, which has been spoken about for decades. We are sealing the Tanami Road, which will particularly help Indigenous communities and goldmines out there. There will be more for Australia and for—(Time expired)