Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The north of Australia produces more than 30 per cent of Australia’s export earnings and it does it with only about six per cent of Australia’s population. Into the future, I can foresee Northern Australia being even more significant to the ongoing economic and social progress in our nation. During the winter break I had the opportunity of driving over 4,000 kilometres around the north-west of Queensland, and there I saw huge opportunities for the future.

As the south of the continent gets drier and as the former food bowl of Australia, the Murray-Darling Basin, becomes less significant as a producer of food, I think the north will come into its own as the future food bowl not only of Australia but of Asia as well. We have the science and the lessons of history to ensure that we develop the north in an agricultural way sustainably and, as I say, learning from mistakes that we have made in the past. During my on-the-ground road tour out into the north-west I saw opportunities abounding there and I saw dozens of enterprises that show that it can be done. All it really needs is for governments to get out of the way and the science to be perfected and turned into applied science—and that will all happen, given some leadership from governments. Currently that leadership has not been there in Queensland. It is certainly not there in the Northern Territory. Hopefully it will now be there in Western Australia.

Just last week I was very pleased that the coalition’s policy committee on water and environment did a tour across the top of our nation, first of all going to look at the prospective tidal power stations—or tidal power opportunities—up in the north-west, not far from Derby. At Talbot Bay and Walcott Inlet there are huge variations in the tide that can be harnessed to create clean and green energy. There is a lot of cost involved, of course, in doing those sorts of things, and I congratulate the Hon. Wilson Tuckey on the work and the passion he has for tidal power. But I think it will come to pass one day, particularly if you incorporate the costs of climate change into the equation. By doing that, you will make what are at present simply proposals become financially feasible. I say in passing that, if a tidal power station is ever constructed up there—and I think it will in the future—it should certainly be named ‘the Wilson Tuckey power station’ because of his passion over many years. Someone like Wilson never gives up and I am sure that for as long as he continues to be an active player in Australian public life we will get closer and closer to that.

While we were in Derby we also called in on the mayor and had a look at the work that the Shire of Derby-West Kimberley has done on the Point Torment marine and industrial support facility. I do not know if any of you have ever been to Derby in the past. It used to be a significant town in the old days, with the meatworks and the pearling industry. Of course, with the closure of the meatworks it was a town that did not seem to have much future. I was surprised to find that there are three or four developers opening up land in Derby. Why? Because you simply cannot get a block of land there. As I recall, they were selling the land in Derby for something like $120,000 to $150,000. There is activity going on there. It is not far from the Browse Basin, where the new oil and gas is going, and this Point Torment project is to try and make a marine industrial support base for the new oil and gas wells off the coast there.

We then went to Kununurra, the Ord River and Lake Argyle and again saw what Australians are doing in the north currently. The value of farm activity in 2006-07 was $48 million in agricultural production and $39 million in expected value in timber up that way. The trends in production for the year 2008 include cucurbits, mangoes, citrus and a seed called ‘chia’. There is lot of forestry happening and there will be opportunities for cane, and some enthusiasm, if they can get a decent mill operating up there again.

There was a bit of indecision by the former Western Australian government, which I hope with the new government will be a thing of the past. I certainly urge the new government to seriously proceed with the Western Australian part of stage 2 of the Ord River scheme. Stage 2 of the scheme goes over the border into the Northern Territory, but, regrettably, the Northern Territory government shows absolutely no interest in what could be a very significant expansion of the economic and population base of the Territory.

There are a lot of opportunities up there. There is a lot of work being done looking at off-season production of opium poppies, rice and, as I mentioned, chia. There could be opportunities with the sugar industry with cogeneration options, better varieties, ethanol opportunities and molasses, which is valuable for stock feed. There is a lot of work being done on GM cotton. Kenaf and industrial hemp are also possibilities. Irrigated wheat is being grown up there. Tomato paste production is possible. Seed potatoes are possible, as are biofuels. The opportunities in the Ord are boundless. All it needs is a bit of action from the state government and, I have to say, support from the federal government in a financial way to build the infrastructure. The infrastructure needed to do the M2 part of stage 2 on the Western Australian side of the border is a road and some extension of the channels. The water is there in Lake Argyle, and there are huge opportunities.

There is concern that a lot of managed investment scheme forests are being planted on good agricultural land, but that will sort itself out. It is an issue there as it is in many parts of Australia at the present time, but, as I say, I think it is one that will resolve itself.

While we were there we went and had a look at a plantation growing Indian sandalwood, which is in very high demand by, amongst others, the perfume industry. I was interested to hear that it is not actually sandalwood perfume that they want the sandalwood for but rather that it has an ingredient that makes perfume made by Gucci and those sorts of companies remain longer. Apparently cheap perfume is here today and gone in five minutes, but if you use this Indian sandalwood it keeps the perfume around for some time. It is a very interesting industry which looks like having a very good future in that area.

We then went on to the Douglas Daly area of the Northern Territory, which could support a great deal of agriculture to help feed Australia and Asia into the future. Again, mismanagement by the Northern Territory government is causing problems, for reasons I simply cannot understand. But in the future, and given leadership, that area will also become a very important food bowl for Australia. (Time expired)