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

I thank the honourable member for his question. There can be no better example of what the coalition is doing for regional Australia than what can be seen in Maranoa—matched by many but not bettered by others. What we have seen, obviously, in Maranoa is the money that we have put on the table for Emu Swamp Dam. Emu Swamp Dam is part of our dams policy. It is a dams policy that is supported on this side of the chamber but not supported in Queensland—they are too interested in Ms Trad and Ms Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Premier, getting stuck into one another—and not supported on the other side either where we see they are going to take $235.2 million out of our water policy because they do not believe in building dams. You can see the difference the coalition has made when you see the work that has been put in with the dog fences put in place at Cunnamulla, bringing sheep back into those regional areas and making sure that employment is based once more in the western areas and making sure that the economy is going in the western areas and dragging the wealth back into the western areas.

You can see our vision in the $100 million we put on the table for the Winton to Laverton road, because we believe in sealing the third road across our nation. Since close to settlement—since the First Fleet—we have only sealed two roads across this nation: one through Camooweal and one across the Nullarbor. But the vision to seal the third road across our nation resides on this side of the chamber. This side of the chamber is where it is, and it is the same side of the chamber that believes in building the inland rail. This is the inland rail which we put money on the table for so that we can have a corridor of commerce from Melbourne up to Brisbane through regional Victoria, regional New South Wales and regional Queensland. It comes on the back of record ag exports—record prices in cattle, record prices in meat sheep, record prices in pork, turnaround in the wool market and turnaround in the wine market. We are getting towards record prices in sugar and a turnaround in the price of oranges, potatoes and chickpeas.

You ask what the policies are on the other side, and well might you ask that question because we will never know. It has been a year since I got a question on policy from the member for Hunter. It is a year now—since 30 October—since I got a question on policy issues. For a question of any sort, we have to go back to November. When it comes to water policy, I have never received a question. I have never received a question on that from the member for Port Adelaide or the member for Watson. They do not give us questions on these issues, so where would you go looking? I suppose you could go looking at their 100 Positive Policies. In the 100 Positive Policies they have a policy on the Commonwealth cleaning services but not one on agriculture. They have nothing on agriculture, and even right now while we are trying—

See this speech in context