Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I move to discussing the effect of the budget in Central Queensland, I would just like to correct one thing out of question time. Senator Brandis, in answer to a question from Senator Bilyk, continued to maintain this myth from government that there has been no cut to funding under their school funding arrangements. I would like to table part of the government's own document, which was released when they made their announcement, which says very clearly that compared to Labor's arrangements the government's package represents a saving of $22.3 billion over 10 years—otherwise known as a $22 billion cut.

What I would mostly like to talk about today is yet another dramatic failure from arguably the biggest failure in the House of Representatives, and that is the member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry. This is the member of parliament who was so irrelevant to her own government that she was kept in the dark over the election announcements the government made about the Shoalwater Bay Defence land expansion and the need to compulsorily acquire properties to go ahead with that. She has been a complete failure on jobs, and we are seeing increasing levels of unemployment and jobs walking out the door in Central Queensland, without any action from her. This week's federal budget is yet another gross failure from an incompetent member of parliament who does not deserve to be here.

Many people will be aware that recently Rockhampton experienced another flood, its fourth flood in the last decade. I was up there during the flood and saw the damage for myself. As a result of that, the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, made a very firm commitment that was backed by Jason Clare, our shadow minister for northern Australia, the other day. We are putting $25 million on the table to help construct this levee and to make sure that Rockhampton does not have to go through these floods over and over again.

You would think that a competent local member would get behind this and would actually be in the ear of her Prime Minister and her Treasurer, demanding money for this flood levee and threatening to cross the floor. You would think she would do whatever it took to get the money for her community. But instead all we are seeing from Michelle Landry, the member for Capricornia, is just more pathetic excuses and more dithering as to why she cannot get the job done.

There was another incredibly embarrassing failure from her in Rockhampton's The Morning Bulletintoday. When asked about the levee, she said that there is a lot of contention over this, as many people outside of Depot Hill, one of the flooded suburbs, have concerns about the levee. But, when she was asked for a figure of how many people outside of Depot Hill have concerns, Ms Landry did not offer a number or an answer. That is because she is making it up as she goes along. Then she stuck to her line that full community support is needed before she is going to back a flood levee to protect her own constituents from flooding. But the article goes on to say that, unfortunately, Michelle Landry was not able to clarify what constituted full support. Is it 100 per cent? Is it 95 per cent? Is it 90 per cent? What about these locals and businesses in Rockhampton who have to go through floods, every couple of years at the moment, and have an incompetent local member who cannot get through the door to see her Prime Minister and her Treasurer to demand funding for her electorate?

At the end of the article Ms Landry desperately did not want to talk about the levee any longer, so she tried to put up the fact that funds had been provided to build the Yeppen bridge, which is a critical piece of infrastructure I have travelled on myself, and ensure that Rockhampton during these floods remained connected to Queensland for the very first time. The only problem with this, Ms Landry, is that it actually was not your government that got this done. Ms Landry is pointing to the Yeppen bridge, which was commenced and funded by the last federal Labor government. So not only is she incapable of actually getting money from her own government to build a flood levy; she has to walk away and talk about past federal Labor government achievements to try to detract attention.

It is no surprise that she keeps pointing to federal Labor commitments in her electorate. In the long list of projects she tried to pass off as being new projects that she managed to win in this budget she had in there a couple of projects that again were funded and commenced by the former federal Labor government. While Michelle Landry has been the member for Capricornia, this government has done so little to build infrastructure in her own area that she has to desperately try to pass off infrastructure that was provided by the last federal Labor government years ago.

Michelle Landry is like a dodgy used-car dealer who has an old, beaten up lemon of a car that no-one wants to buy anymore. She is dusting off the rust, winding back the odometer and trying to present it as a new car. There is not one new project in the list of projects that Michelle Landry has put forward as her great achievements in this year's budget. Instead, she has got yet another regional growth fund when we have already got three or four different funds operating for Central Queensland and none of them have actually spent any money or provided any jobs. Michelle Landry is not up to the job. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.