Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would remind Senator Ayres of our visit to Whyalla, where we heard from GFG with respect to their proposal to introduce an electric arc furnace into the steelworks at Whyalla to modernise that facility, an extra $125 million, approximately, of up-front capital cost because of the instability in the South Australian electricity grid caused by its reliance on wind and solar. I hope, Senator Ayres, that the steelworks at Whyalla doesn't close down and those jobs don't disappear to Ohio as well.

I rise today to speak about a concerning situation I came across during a trip to Longreach and Winton, when I was visiting to attend the Outback Queensland Tourism Awards. I went through a journey of emotions. First, there was the delight of attending the Outback Queensland Tourism Awards. A number of fantastic contributors to the Queensland tourism industry were recognised, including Stewart Benson, Stewie, from Blackall, who was awarded the Vince Evert Award for outstanding contribution to tourism for his work in making sure that the droving culture is respected and honoured in his home town of Blackall; the Festivals and Events winner was the Big Red Bash out at Birdsville; Cultural Tourism, Qantas Founders Museum; Outback Eco Project, the Australian Age of Dinosaurs project; Visitor's Choice Best Outback Queensland Stay, Saltbush Retreat; Tour and Transport Operations, Outback Aussie Tours—good people achieving great things in outback Queensland for the tourism industry, creating jobs in the regions.

And then, unfortunately, as the Palaszczuk-Trad government is wont to do, I was brought down to earth when my host, Lachie Millar, took me to meet some participants in the kangaroo processing and harvesting industry who'd just received some advice from the Queensland government with their quota for the 2020 year. Ben and Liza Cameron of Western Game Processing Pty Ltd have done their bit for regional Queensland. They established a business in the kangaroo industry, employing 18 staff, including two meat inspectors. They've been upskilling staff so that there are now 50 accredited Longreach macropod harvesters. They've established chiller and buying facilities at Barcaldine, Winton, Aramac and Isisford, and they also engaged and hired five local chiller box operators. They've done their bit. They've invested $2 million of capital in Longreach. And then they get this letter on 28 October 2019 from the Palaszczuk-Trad government, which tells them that their company, Western Game Processing Pty Ltd, can now apply for their 2020 licence. So they read the letter—they weren't given any notice of any of this—and then they get down to the last paragraph, which says: 'Oh, by the way, there will be no harvest in 2020 in the central zone north of the eastern grey kangaroo; no harvest in the central zone south of the eastern grey kangaroo; the common wallaroo, no harvest.' Apply for your licence, but you get no quota. Thanks for that, Palaszczuk-Trad government. You really understand the regions, don't you?

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another kick in the guts.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Rennick says, it's another kick in the guts for regional Queensland.

I actually did some research when Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was found in contempt of the Queensland parliament. Annastacia Palaszczuk was found in contempt of the Queensland parliament. I asked the Parliamentary Library, 'Has any other leader—any other premier or prime minister—in Australian history ever been found in contempt of their parliament?' The answer was none; it is an Australian first. Well done, Premier Palaszczuk! Not only is she in contempt and has been found unanimously, including by her own members in the Labor Party, to be in contempt of the Queensland parliament but she is treating the people of regional Queensland with contempt.

This is just one example. It follows many, many other examples in Queensland. We have had the debacle of the flora trigger map, which, amongst other things, found that there was endangered flora on Suncorp Stadium. We have had the debacle of the vegetation management laws, the shark control fiasco scaring tourists away from regional Queensland, the Rookwood Weir, Paradise Dam and our commercial fishermen treated as if they are criminals. It goes on and on. Absolute contempt!

This latest fiasco is the kangaroo cull. I would like to quote from the great state member for the seat of Gregory, Lachlan Millar. He said, 'I've seen departmental correspondence to individual stakeholders'—and that is the correspondence I refer to—'which appear to be a reminder to renew their licences, until you read the bit about a zero quota for the central, north and south zones.' This is what Lachie Millar says, not my words:

This is an appalling way to communicate with people whose livelihoods you are summarily shutting down and I have written to the minister asking her to restore quotas in the central zone, and to conduct departmental forums so stakeholders can be heard.

Mr Millar said that the zero quota affects a huge area of Queensland, from the McKinlay shire boundary all the way down to the New South Wales border. We need to manage our way through this drought nimbly. Annual quotas based on two-year-old surveys will not fit the bill. We need clear heads, not wilful ignorance. Mr Millar says:

We need clear heads, not wilful ignorance

That is what we are getting from the Palaszczuk-Trad government in Queensland: wilful ignorance. Mr Millar goes on:

We need a lot of steady rain over many, many months to break this drought. I am very clear-eyed that when that happens we will be facing a new set of troubles. The Queensland Government must actively assist good management of those challenges not exhibit ideological self-indulgence aimed at green activists in Brisbane.

The people of regional Queensland are sick and tired of a state Palaszczuk-Trad government that is exhibiting again and again and again the ideological self-indulgence that is aimed at green activists in Brisbane.

Whilst we are at it, I say there needs to be a review of the kangaroo industry in this country. I say this—and they are not my words; let me quote from Dr George R Wilson, who wrote an article, which I recommend to all senators, which appeared in The Zoologist this year:

Millions of kangaroos are dying in 2018 but without good conservation outcomes. Populations are crashing in drought and contributing to land degradation. Non-commercial culling is increasing because landholders seek to stop kangaroos from competing with their conventional livestock … Non-commercial kill leads to poor animal welfare outcomes …

The fact of the matter is that graziers can still apply for damage mitigation permits, bringing in shooters who are not licensed, who do not kill in the way that the licensed shooters kill and who do not engage in practices which are appropriate. Those kangaroos, when they are shot under damage mitigation permits, are left to rot on the ground. It is madness. Instead of that resource being harvested and used in a sustainable way, it is left to rot in the paddocks. And all that my good friends from Western Game Processing Pty Ltd get from the state government after they have invested $2 million in Longreach, created over a dozen jobs and provided thousands of dollars to businesses in their regional area—an area which is doing it tough—is a letter saying, 'Please apply to renew your license in 2020, but, by the way, your quota next year is going to be zero.' That is how they are being treated. Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Premier of Queensland, was found in contempt of the Queensland parliament—the only premier or prime minister in Australian history to be found in contempt of parliament—and she is treating the people of my home state of Queensland with utter and absolute contempt.