Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this matter. One of the best investments the government can make is in the infrastructure needed to support future prosperity. However, this government has shown its contempt for regional Australia and slashed almost $10 billion from vital nation-building projects. Last week I met with representatives from the Doomadgee and Burke shire councils. These are areas that have been affected by the floods in northern Queensland. They have helicopters flying in supplies at $40,000 per trip because they've been cut off by floods for two months. They desperately need $75 million to raise crossings and bridges outside Burke, Doomadgee and Mount Isa, which will secure their communities' links with the rest of Australia.

Labor must prioritise infrastructure as a long-term investment to support regional Australian communities over useless measures like increasing the foreign aid budget by $241 million to more than $4½ billion. This must include projects like the $5.4 billion Hells Gate Dam in North Queensland, which Labor scrapped in the budget. There were substantial benefits from this project: more than 10,000 jobs during construction, contributing about $1.3 billion to the local economy; more than 3,000 ongoing jobs; up to 60,000 hectares of newly irrigated land producing a diverse range of high-value products worth at least $800 million per year; and up to $6 billion per year contributed to the local economy. It is nation-building, wealth-creating projects like these which must be prioritised by the government to give regional areas like North Queensland the chance to thrive. I will continue to keep pushing for the Bradfield Scheme, which will give water security to Australia—but that makes too much sense for the brain-dead politicians in this place.