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

Families and small businesses are doing it tough in the Queensland city of Rockhampton. We can create thousands of jobs around Rockhampton within two years, but the Labor Party once again is holding back this opportunity. Rookwood Weir, near Rockhampton, is a key economic driver, but Queensland's State Labor government and Labor MPs like Bill Byrne are sitting on their hands delaying the project, and, along with it, stalling up to 2,100 new jobs.

This is in contrast to the Turnbull-Joyce coalition government, which has put $130 million on the table to pay for 50 per cent of Rookwood. Further to this, we gave Queensland an extra $2 million to get on with the job of completing the state's business case required for Rookwood Weir. Rookwood would boost agricultural production in the Fitzroy Basin by $1 billion. The go-slow Queensland Labor government say they will not have their business case ready until maybe 2018.

Today, I join the Deputy Prime Minister in condemning Queensland for their go-slow. Expert advice suggests Queensland's business case could, in fact, be completed this year, with the project starting in 2017. But Labor would rather see that nothing goes ahead in Rockhampton than give our federal government credit for a project that would create thousands more jobs and turn the city around.