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

I thank the honourable member for his question and note the substantial investment by reason of this budget that will happen in Maranoa—most substantially, of course, the inland rail, which is a nation-building project to create a corridor of commerce from Melbourne up to Brisbane. I know the people of Goondiwindi, when we were there the other day, are looking forward to the capacity to be part of the connectivity they will have to Melbourne, to Sydney and to Brisbane. That, therefore, gives them the capacity also to connect to markets overseas. This is something that so many people have talked about but we are actually delivering on.

We look forward to the Leader of the Opposition's endorsement of this, maybe tomorrow night, where he will be able to come forward and tell us about his vision for the inland rail and how he is supporting it. It is going to be a great project for the Maranoa. Of course, the Maranoa deserves these sorts of projects. That is why we also support the 35 new and upgraded mobile phone towers in places such as Moonie, Hannaford, Wondai Road and also into the Western Downs. I know we have some people in the gallery here today from the Western Downs.

We also support the $2.5 million to replace the Lemontree-Bostock and Charlies Creek bridges, which are very important for the people of Maranoa, and the $35.6 million for roads recovery across the forwards in the seat of Maranoa. I know that after the Waltzing Matilda Centre, in Winton, burnt down we put $8 million on the table to make sure that that gets up and running again. There is the $5.9 billion for 4G into Windorah, Birdsville, Bedourie, Jundah and Stonehenge. And let us not forget the $100 million election pledge for the sealing of the third road across our nation. We are going from Laverton in Western Australia to Winton in Western Queensland.

It is this government that has had the courage to come forward with substantial infrastructure in such a way that we can get to the coal precincts that reside in the seat of Maranoa and also the grain and the cotton. This is the sort of wealth that is giving us a great economic opportunity in our nation. It is also the agricultural wealth that, under this government, has gone from $48.6 billion in gross value of agricultural production to $63.8 billion. That is a 31 per cent increase on the back of three free trade agreements. That is a 31 per cent increase on the back of diligent work by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to make sure that the protocols were in place so that we can move such things as more chilled beef into China. These are the sorts of outcomes that have been allowed places such as the Maranoa, whose gross value of beef has gone from $638 million when we came to government to $915 million now, a 43 per cent increase. These are the sorts of dollars and cents that are coming back through the farm gate to Maranoa to people in the agricultural sector.

But, of course, what we always await is: what is the vision for the Labor Party in agriculture? Do they have a vision? Are we ever going to see one? We will wait for tomorrow night when the member for Maribyrnong might— (Time expired)

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