Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's good to be asking a question. My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Will the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House how the government's infrastructure investment in northern Australia is securing jobs and the economic future of regional Australian families? Is he aware of any threats to these economic opportunities in regional Australia?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I note the massive expenditure that is happening in Queensland. There is $6.7 billion for the Bruce Highway upgrade package over 10 years, $2.6 billion more than Labor's 10-year commitment. It includes 45 new projects Labor never funded: the $600 million North Australian Road Programme, NARP; and the hundred million dollar beef roads program.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Wakefield has been warned. He will leave the House under 94(a).

The member for Wakefield then left the chamber.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are 37 projects upgrading 480 kilometres of roads in northern Australia, generating hundreds of jobs, none of which would have happened under Labor.

I'm happy to announce that we're getting very close to the conclusion of the funding for Rookwood Weir. We've been waiting for a long time for the Queensland Labor government to come on board with this project. The Capricorn Highway duplication between Rockhampton and Gracemere is to commence construction midyear. There will be five kilometres of duplication construction of a two-lane bridge over Scrubby Creek, and four intersection upgrades and cross-drainage works to mitigate flooding. Currently, 17,000 cars a day use this highway. It's critical infrastructure to help the resource industry and the agricultural industry. There are so many parts of the Northern Australia Roads Program that will assist the electorates of the members for Flynn, Dawson and Capricornia.

All this is part of the connectivity of the mighty beef industry in the area, the coal industry and the other minerals industries. We see the Flinders Highway, Charters Towers to Richmond, culvert upgrades; the Kennedy Developmental Road; and the Lynd-Hughenden section, something that has been asked for a long period of time. I note the member for Flynn's advocacy in trying to get the road upgraded. There are the Great Northern Highway upgrade from Maggie Creek to Wyndham, which is about to commence, and the Great Northern Highway Bow River Bridge and approaches, which is about to commence.

We are a government that believes in the tactile things that people actually vote for, whether they're mobile phone towers, whether they're bridges, whether it's the inland rail, whether it's sealing roads, whether it's making sure that people's lives are better. We fight for it and we deliver on it. We stand behind the beef industry, which is so vitally important. We stand behind the live cattle trade. It will be interesting, in the seat of Batman, to see what Labor's position is on the live cattle trade. That'll be an interesting discussion for them to have down there. Of course, they'll have a much different conversation at a latter stage when the seat of Longman no doubt becomes vacant. I say to the member for Flynn, the member for Capricornia and the member for Dawson—and I know there is Senator Canavan in the other place—that we are making a massive investment in this part of the world, which was so readily forgotten by the Australian Labor Party.