Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Already the development of the Galilee Basin is employing people. It can employ a lot more if the project proceeds and gets going. Yesterday the Adani company confirmed they're employing 800 people right now. They're employing 235 people in the job-starved town of Townsville, a town that's desperate for jobs. A lot of those people in their Townsville office, some of whom I've met, have moved themselves and their families from Brisbane to Townsville because Adani moved their headquarters there.

These are the people that Bill Shorten wants to put out of a job. He wants to put them and their families out of a job after they've upturned their life to move to Townsville for a new opportunity. I think that's disgraceful. It's not just the mine, though: John Wagner, a businessman in Toowoomba, is employing 15 people at the moment. He says that he can employ 100 more if the project goes ahead. I want those hundred jobs for the Toowoomba region—as I'm sure Senator O'Sullivan does.