Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure, as leader of the National Party, to stand in the chamber tonight and speak against the disallowance moved by one of the great coalitions: the Labor Party and the Australian Greens. Is there any better example of what Queenslanders think about a feasibility study into the Collinsville high-efficiency, low-emission coal-fired power station than the federal election results? Just look at the federal election results—just check them out. The LNP rocked it in. Central Queensland and northern Queensland absolutely stood behind initiatives such as this one, which our government put on the table and took to the election. We are very proud to deliver on looking into a feasibility study on whether this power station should actually be built and, therefore, drive down power prices for Queenslanders so that they can enjoy a post-COVID-19 recovery plan from this government that does include advanced manufacturing. So we are not just talking about the potential new jobs that the power station will bring, nor just the mining jobs that getting the coal for this power station will bring, but indeed also those value-adding industries out in regional Queensland—all this from an advanced manufacturing plan that this government has post-COVID that needs low-cost energy to power and drive it.

For those of you who can't see the chamber tonight, we have a full bench of the Greens, we have a pretty full bench from the National and the Liberal parties and the LNP Senate team, but it is cooee crickets on the Labor side of the chamber tonight. Other than the Labor senator that moved this disallowance, let's be fair, there is not a Queenslander in sight tonight. Do you know why? They tried to pull this motion. They tried to pull away from it. Senator Waters, we have locked you in; we know the Greens Queenslanders are here. The trouble is that regional Queensland doesn't vote for you.

I just want to read from this morning's TheCourier Mail. There might be a reason we don't have a Queensland senator here to actually speak for this feasibility study. It's not very often that I agree with the old CFMEU. Sometimes the forestry division in my home state of Victoria can get excited about the sustainable and renewable forestry industry that the Greens and now the Labor Party want to end. Can I just talk about what happened in Queensland and why there is not a Labor Party senator here to stand up for this disallowance? It is appalling. It's not just Joel Fitzgibbon and the Otis group that have cottoned on to what's wrong with the Labor Party; all of the Labor senators know that they have lost their way, that they do not stand for the working class in this country anymore. Who stands for jobs in the regions, jobs in traditional industries and jobs in the mining industry and construction industry? It is the LNP. It is the Liberal Party and it is the National Party, and we are very proud to do that.

What did the mining and construction division of the CFMEU do today? They walked away.