Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. Will the minister update the House on how the government's northern Australia white paper will help rural and regional Australia, including my electorate of Capricornia, capitalise on the delivery of the free trade agreement with China?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. She is a true daughter of Rockhampton: a person who worked for 22 years in the National Australia Bank in that area, a person who stands right behind their local university—which is one of the premier universities in Australia now, a centre of excellence in beef research. It is great to see them taking over the CSIRO facilities there. Rockhampton, if it is known for one thing, is known for the immense wealth that it brings back to our nation through the cattle industry.

Queensland's beef industry represents about 47 per cent of our nation's beef industry, and in Queensland alone it employs around 34,000 people. This is why people have got to understand that, when we develop the North, when we bring about new free trade agreements with China, we are developing industries that actually employ people—they get people back into jobs. It is not only a benefit for the member for Capricornia; it is a benefit for the whole of Australia. A great example of how the benefit of the North is clearly linked to the benefit of the rest of Australia can be seen in the Adelaide to Darwin rail line, which, at the start, had so many people who ridiculed it. Now it has increased the amount of trade that is going from Adelaide 13 times. It has become a vital link, and it also opens up so many more precincts.

I am so happy to see that, within this, we have a $5 billion loan facility to get deals and to make sure that they actually happen. To see $200 million of real money that goes towards dams—these are vitally important because they allow us to do the investigations into Ord Stage 3. In that alone, a one-metre extension on the wall of the Argyle dam would bring 1,000 gigalitres more storage; that is one million megalitres of extra storage. The further investigation of the rail link between Tennant Creek and Mount Isa goes through areas such as Phosphate Hill. These are new mineral precincts. This is going to bring great wealth into our nation.

This is the capacity that we have. It is so good to be part of a government that actually puts its money where its mouth is, that actually delivers real plans with real money. It is great to be part of a government of doers, of people who actually make things happen. And it is great to be in this section of parliament. With all the plans and all the hard work that were part of our time that we utilised in opposition to get these plans together, and our time in government to formulate and finalise them, they are now happening. They are now landing. And it shows that this is a government that is going to make Australia a wealthier, better and more prosperous place.