Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Australian Government is committed to providing water infrastructure to increase agricultural production and irrigation potential across Australia;

(b) the Australian Government has committed funding to the following projects, which are examples of how the Coalition is serious about jobs and growth in this country, promising:

  (i) $130 million to cover 50 per cent of the cost of building Rookwood Weir, near Rockhampton, with a further $2 million to ensure that the Queensland Government can complete the final business case required for Rookwood to proceed;

(ii) $225,000 to secure water infrastructure for Clermont and Theresa Creek Dam in Queensland; and

(iii) $3 million towards a feasibility study for Urannah Dam near Mackay in Queensland, benefiting an area from Eungella to Collinsville and the northern tropics;

(2) notes the failure of Federal Labor and Queensland Labor to financially commit to projects such as Rookwood Weir; and

(3) commends the Australian Government for recognising the potential of Australia by investing in water infrastructure.

The federal government is committed to a secure future for regional Australians through increased agricultural production and water infrastructure. The unprecedented guarantee of funds for water security by the Australian government confirms our commitment to the future prosperity of regional Australia. However, the Queensland government under Labor is looking a gift horse in the mouth, refusing to move on business cases and construction. Our commitment is resolute and vital for regional Queensland. The coalition government is providing $500 million in grants and $2 billion in loans. Not since the 1970s has there been such a push by the federal government to incentivise states to build the water infrastructure needed to allow regional Australia to grow in the 21st century.

There were announcements with this purpose in the agricultural competitiveness and northern Australia white papers. The coalition government committed $60 million to water resource assessments, feasibility studies and the development of business cases nationally. Half of that funding is for Queensland. This includes $130 million to the construction of Rookwood Weir, $225,000 to investigate water security solutions for Clermont, $2 million for a feasibility study of the Urannah Dam and an additional $2 million to complete the business case for the Rookwood Weir. This unprecedented Commonwealth investment in water infrastructure, which is primarily a state responsibility, is a visionary policy of the Turnbull-Joyce government, designed to finance projects to grow regional Australia. Let us look at what these projects mean for regional Queensland.

Rookwood Weir has been described as a game changer for Central Queensland. It has the potential to create 2,100 direct new jobs in the region as well as doubling farming output along the Fitzroy River. The Turnbull-Joyce government has now funded the business case, completed EPBC approvals and committed $130 million for Rookwood Weir. We still have no commitments from Queensland state Labor. The funds will assess the feasibility of securing reliable, long-term water supply for Clermont. It will open up development in the Galilee Basin through new and upgraded major water infrastructure for Clermont. Theresa Creek Dam will have vital augmentation and remediation works completed.

Farm production is forecast to leap by 8.3 per cent during this financial year, but these opportunities will be lost for Central Queensland as Labor continues to drag the chain. It is time for the Queensland government to look beyond the Brisbane bubble and commit to building Rookwood Weir. The latest advice is that the state government is working on the business case for Rookwood Weir. This is the business case the federal government committed to fund in May 2016. This is all for a project that Peter Beattie in 2006 declared would be built by 2011. In that time, the Western Australian government have completed feasibility studies, committed their own funding and submitted two applications to the Commonwealth government major water projects. It is the same in Tasmania, where the state government has completed business cases for their water projects and is now building them. The other states can do it; it is not hard. The Queensland government just needs to get on with it.

Showing a complete lack of comprehension for economic security, the Queensland water minister, Mark Bailey, has requested that the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund be repurposed for urban water supply. This is a new level of contempt shown for regional Queensland by the city-centric Labor-Green coalition in Queensland. Urban water supply has always been the responsibility of state governments and water utilities. This is not a cost-shifting exercise.

Agriculture is delivering a record contribution to the Australian economy, with exports up 10 per cent and overall production at a record-breaking $63.8 billion. This is no accident but the result of effective policy and funding. Central Queensland will be missing out, because the Queensland Labor government finds one excuse after the other.

I call on the Queensland Labor government to fast track Rookwood Weir with the same level of urgency they applied to funding the Brisbane Cross River Rail. I call on them to fast-track the business case, commit the funds and start creating jobs for Queenslanders outside that inner-city bubble.

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