George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The $500 million Mackay Ring Road stage 1 project will create 600 jobs for concreters, plant operators, drivers, labourers and many more. The project will turn around a lot of dirt, a lot of gravel, a lot of steel and a lot of concrete. We have businesses already in the community who do just that, and we have people with the necessary skills and experience. All that business and all those jobs should mean a huge boost to the local economy at a time when we badly need it.

The Mackay Region has done it tough in the mining downturn and for the region to truly benefit from the Mackay Ring Road a fair share of those jobs must go to people who live and spend their pay packet in the local community. While the federal government has stumped up the bulk of the funding for stage 1 of the Mackay Ring Road, the project is administered by the state government, so it falls on the state government to decide who gets the tender and the jobs. I am asking locals in the Mackay Region to join the fight by signing a letter to the Premier of Queensland voicing the community's concerns.

We do not want a southern contractor giving all the jobs to southerners and leaving locals in the lurch. We are calling on the Queensland government to do the right thing by the Mackay Region and make jobs for locals a priority. The letter is available to be signed at a website that I have set up—www.jobsforlocals.com.au. That website will be operational by the weekend, and I encourage anyone who wants to see more jobs for locals, whether they be local workers or local contractors, to sign that letter so the Premier gets the message that we want jobs for locals.