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

I rise to speak on this private member's motion. I do so as a proud North Queenslander who has often spoken in this place about the need for infrastructure in the north. I, like many other North Queenslanders, have often asked the questions: what if the true potential of the north was recognised by government? What if infrastructure was built to make the most of the assets we have in the north: our abundance of water; our welcoming climate; and enough space to swing a very, very long cat? What if policies, departments and decisions recognised that only four per cent of the population lives in the top half of the continent, and enabled and encouraged better development of Northern Australia?

Those what-ifs would require a government with vision such as the Bjelke-Petersen government, which delivered the Burdekin Dam, the last major piece of infrastructure that was built in North Queensland. The Abbott government too is a government with vision. As we promised before the election, the government set up the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia, which will inform a white paper on the north. Unlike the previous government, which grabbed the nearest thought bubble and then rammed it down people's throats, this government is actually out there listening to the people.

The committee on Northern Australia development is asking people who live, work and operate businesses across Northern Australia what unique obstacles they face and what opportunities exist. The committee has visited Perth, Cairns and Mackay and other northern parts of WA, Darwin and the Top End, and has listened to key stakeholders across north and north-west Queensland. I recognise and pay tribute to the chair of the joint parliamentary select committee who is here in the chamber, the member for Leichhardt, Mr Entsch.

Some of the input from those regional areas has been along familiar lines: doing something about increasing the zonal tax rebate and other business-led tax rebates and incentives for individuals, because you have to understand that everything is more expensive in the north. A Deloitte Access Economics report identified Queensland and regional areas as those hardest hit by things like the carbon tax, so we need to do something about that as well.

Much of the input has been about local opportunities and, in my electorate in coastal North Queensland, some very good potential projects were presented to the joint select committee which were often water related. Water is a key part of driving development. The north sees very little rain during the dry season but, during the wet, it really rains. So new dams would provide a steady reliable source of water.

The Urannah Dam project would open up an area of greenfield irrigation development only 100 kilometres from an existing agricultural area—that is, the sugar industry of the Burdekin to the north and the horticultural industry of Bowen to the south. Catching water in the wet tropic areas around the back of Eungella, Urannah would supply reliable water to the dry tropic area around Collinsville, which is now ably represented by the member for Capricornia who is going to speak later in this motion. The dam site would be in a deep valley that would produce a dam almost the same capacity as the Burdekin Dam but would only flood 20 per cent of the country that the Burdekin Dam actually covers.

Another water project in the Bowen area is an extension of the Elliot Main Channel, which is already partly constructed. It was originally designed to transport 60,000 megalitres of water each year from the Burdekin through a 93-kilometre open channel and a 63-kilometre main pipeline to Bowen and the agricultural areas in-between. Given the infrastructure is partly built already, you would only require a government with vision to reinvigorate the project to further grow agriculture in the north.

But there is more to the north than agriculture. We already have a thriving tourism market—it was once thriving; it has gone through a bit of a hiatus lately but it is getting there again. There is no shortage of drawcards throughout Northern Australia, particularly in North Queensland, such as the Whitsunday Islands and the Reef in my electorate. But there are significant cost issues. One of the obstacles raised by the committee has been the high cost of all the taxes and charges that go on airports, which in some cases actually means more than the cost of an airfare from one Asian country to another. It sets us back.

I would also like to point out one of the visionary, job-creating projects in my elect—that is, the Abbot Point coal terminal expansion, something that we need to support because it is going to be important to growth and development and new jobs in Northern Australia. A visionary government, such as the one we now have, is setting the course for the future and will not be persuaded by emotional and irrational ideological arguments against development such as the Abbot Point plan. The Abbot Point plan and the tough conditions that have been put on it by the environment minister will ensure responsible development with a net benefit to the environment.

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