Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to make a short contribution about a big part of our country, a big part of our nation: northern Australia. Only six per cent of Australians live, broadly speaking, north of the Tropic of Capricorn, but northern Australia makes up 40 per cent of our land mass and makes a huge contribution to our country and to our nation. It is for that reason that the federal government established a white paper on northern Australia. For a period of time I had the honour to be the minister for northern Australia, overseeing that plan.

I want to provide some remarks in response to the ministerial statement—the fifth annual statement of our 20-year plan to develop northern Australia—that was provided by Minister Keith Pitt in the other place last month. We're about a quarter of the way in now to a nation-building plan to get northern Australia going. It was good to see in the minister's update that, I think, 46 of the 51 measures in the white paper have been implemented. They're almost all in place, and lots of good things are happening right across the north.

Before I get to some of those, I want to spend time reiterating why we are doing this. Why should the federal government take a focus on the north of our nation? Just six per cent of Australians live there, but northern Australia accounts for over half of our nation's exports. So over half of our export dollars originate from areas of our country to the north of us here and to the north of the Tropic of Capricorn. By God, we have needed those exports this year as our economy has suffered through the coronavirus pandemic, but we have all been lifted up and kept somewhat whole through the massive amounts of iron ore exports, coal exports, gas exports and agricultural exports that flow from northern Australia. Normally, there's a significant amount of tourism too, in the north, in places like the Great Barrier Reef, Broome, Darwin, Arnhem Land and other central locations—some beautiful parts of the Northern Territory—to attract people from all over the world. It's closed for now but it'll be back better than ever.

There's also huge opportunity in the north, as you'd expect from Arrernte country, that we haven't fully developed like other parts of our nation or haven't developed as much. There has been development. I reject the notion that the area hasn't developed. That's indicated by the fact that half our exports come from northern Australia. There's been a lot of development, but there's a lot more to do too. It is 40 per cent of our land mass but it also has 60 per cent of our rainfall. Sixty per cent of water falls on lands in northern Australia. Yet there are very few dams or water infrastructure in the north relative to what we have, say, in the Murray-Darling where I speak to you from today.

Northern Australia is strategically placed, facing north to many parts of the world that are growing considerably. More than half the world's middle class are expected to reside in our region, in the Asian region, by 2030, in 10 years time. Northern Australia has excellent access to good ports like Darwin, the coal ports in North Queensland and the iron ore ports in Western Australia, in Wyndham, near the Ord project. They are all very attractively placed to take advantage of that economic growth and create opportunities for all Australians as well. That is a final reason we should invest in northern Australia. It would be good for all of Australia if the north continued to grow and develop. Too many Australians are concentrated in just a few cities. Well over half, over 60 per cent, of our population resides in our top five capital cities. That's a very high proportion compared to a country like America, where only 10 or 15 per cent of their population resides in their top five cities. We could spread out more and have more space and better housing affordability, and put less pressure on public transport, if we developed other economic opportunities around the country.

A lot has been achieved in the five years we've been pushing the northern Australia plan. I forgot to mention at the start that I want to recognise the efforts of former Senator Ian Macdonald, who was integral in getting the plan going. Mr Warren Entsch, the member for Leichhardt, has also played a key role over the years, pushing for an agenda like this, and he remains the chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia, overseeing all the good works that are happening.

One of the best things happening is the roads we're building as part of this project. Those arteries that we're building, particularly east-west across our nation, are connecting up parts of our country where it previously took a long time to get from A to B. I had the privilege, recently, of driving on some of the roads we're investing in. They included the Outback Way, which is a road that links up Winton and Laverton in south-west Western Australia. The government has allocated over $500 million to that road. It'll be just the third sealed road across our continent. We're a vast continent, a big country, but we only have two ways you can drive from one side of it to the other and stay on bitumen the whole way. This will create that third route and will massively open up places.

I was driving on those roads between Winton and Boulia, a few months ago, with the state member for Gregory, Lachlan Millar. It was great to see upgraded roads there, creating opportunities for people in western Queensland, hooking up to the Northern Territory. I was going to drive the Outback Way on the way back from the Northern Territory, from Alice to Boulia, but I was advised by the locals that unless I had a couple of tyres I was taking a bit of a risk to get back on time, so I diverted up to the Barkly, up through Tennant Creek. But eventually we are going to upgrade that route. That is yet to be upgraded, but we will upgrade the Alice Springs to Boulia route and allow people in that region to get proper access. I don't have time to go through all the other roads. The Hann Highway created the first inland route from Cairns to Melbourne, which was incredibly important, particularly for banana and avocado growers in the Tablelands region around Cairns. The Keep River Road is opening up mining opportunities. There are agricultural opportunities on the Ord on the border of northern Australia and Western Australia. There's the Tanami Road as well. It's massively important. I am going to run out of time here. There is much to go through here.

I want to talk about the dams we are building. The Rookwood Weir is finally being built on the Fitzroy River near Rockhampton. It's going to double agriculture in the Fitzroy basin. It was great to see that finally the state Labor government, just a few days before the election a few weeks ago, committed to the Urannah Dam project. They finally said that they will actually ask the federal government to invest in the dam. It's taken five years of the northern Australia program, but finally the Queensland government are on board. So that is fantastic. I look forward to that application getting Urannah Dam going in the Upper Burdekin, the system near Mackay, Bowen and Collinsville. It's a great opportunity for them. There's a lot more to do on dams and there's a lot of work that has been done ready to set up to build more.

I want to talk a little bit about the achievements of the northern Australia infrastructure fund, a $5 billion fund which has now put $2.4 billion of investments into projects doing great things like building a new meatworks in Central Queensland, the first inland meatworks being built for some time in Australia. James Cook University is upgrading a technology park. There's the Townsville Airport and new power in a very innovative hydro project. An old goldmine in Kidston is being invested in by the northern Australia infrastructure fund. What I believe is the first fully Indigenous owned iron ore mine in Australia is being funded by the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility as well, which I think is a fantastic thing. I recognise the efforts of Fortescue to help bring that about. The NAIF has helped finance that. I think this is the future.

I might segue to future opportunities. I think the future focus for the northern Australian agenda has to be not just creating jobs for Indigenous Australians but creating businesses for Indigenous Australians to own. The plan has achieved significant success in enforcing employment targets on all those road projects and water projects I mentioned. They all have targets for Indigenous employment. So if a council is getting some money to build a road it has to employ a set minimum of Indigenous Australians. That has been fantastic, but the next step is to try to support businesses to be owned by Indigenous Australians so they're not just working on the roads; they actually have the contract to build the roads. It's so they are not just getting training in a mine but they actually own a mine or have board positions on a mine so they can take control of their destiny and benefit from the growth in northern Australia.

The final thing I wanted to mention on future opportunities is partnering with other countries through the northern Australia agenda. We've heard a lot this year about our need to diversify our exports and trading relationships. The north, I believe, is the platform best served to do that. We've seen the Adani investment in northern Australia recently establish stronger investment in trade links with India. There's a lot more to do with India, especially in the agricultural opportunities of the Fitzroy and the west and east Kimberley areas of Western Australia. They are completely suitable for the Indian subcontinent. They have a countercyclical climate to the subcontinent as well, which would make sense for partnering in investment opportunities there. And of course there is the growth in South-East Asia that we are seeing in Vietnam and Indonesia. There are significant opportunities to deepen relationships with those countries through our northern Australian agenda.

So this is something we need to persist with. I recognise the general bipartisan support the agenda has received. I hope that can continue, because it's important for our whole country that we develop the north of our nation as well.