Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Can I start by saying how disappointing it is that the Deputy Prime Minister is not here. This is our opportunity to scrutinise the Resources and Northern Australia portfolio. He has a responsibility in the House of Representatives to represent the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, and the fact that he is not here to face the music and answer questions put by representatives in the House is very disappointing and, I think, shows us the disregard with which he thinks of this process. Hopefully, the Minister for Health can answer some of these questions.

Mr Hunt interjecting—

I will be offended if you do not answer the question, because that is the point of this process. What I want to ask first is: why do you keep stalling on building a flood levee for the people of Rockhampton? This is a levee that will protect about 1,500 properties in the southern part of Rockhampton. More than 1,000 families live in that area and there are a lot of local businesses. Anybody who has paid any attention to this over the last decade will know that the area keeps flooding time after time. It happened in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2015, and it happened again this year in the wake of Cyclone Debbie. And it is going to keep happening unless we do something about it. The damage and clean-up costs of doing this cost the local community a fortune—we are talking tens of millions of dollars every time Rockhampton floods. It also cuts off 3,000 people from their jobs and shuts down local businesses. One of them is a business run by a bloke called Josh Whitcombe in Depot Hill. Last time, when Rockhampton flooded in April, it cost his business 20 grand. He told the local paper, The Morning Bulletin, that it is too expensive to get insurance down there because of the risk of flooding. Instead, he just has to close; he packs everything up and waits until the floodwater recedes again. He wants a levee to protect his business, and he is not the only one.

The government is prevaricating on this and delaying by saying that there is not community support. Well, this is a survey that was done by the local council in 2013, funded with the help of the local university, CQU. It says that 64 per cent of the local community want a flood levee, 25 per cent are unsure and nine per cent do not want it. So you have support. You have majority support in the community—64 per cent want it and another 25 per cent are unsure. That is overwhelming support. They want it to protect their homes and their businesses from being flooded again. We have been talking about this for 25 years. Some of us were still at university then. It should not take this long to resolve a matter as simple as building a flood levee for the people of Rockhampton. The only thing that is missing is the money and the will to do it. The council has designed the levee. It has been through all the official processes. It will cost $60 million to build the flood levee, but, as I said before, the last three floods have cost more than that. The council is willing to put in $10 million. The state government has offered to put in $25 million, so there is $25 million missing. We have said as an opposition in this place that, if we are elected at the next election, we will make that $25 million available to build it. But it should not have to wait for an election. There could be another flood between now and then. If the government have $65 billion in the budget to give away to companies, if they have $6 billion to give to millionaires for a tax cut, why can't they find $25 million for the people of Rockhampton to stop the place flooding again? It tells you everything about this government's priorities.

Again, I am disappointed that Barnaby Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister, is not here, because before the last election, when they were in opposition, he wrote to Rockhampton Regional Council. He wrote to the mayor, who was desperately arguing for this flood levee, and said:

Your project looks like it has a strong case … I will ensure that it receives strong consideration from the Coalition.

It is now four years later, and we are still waiting. Rockhampton has flooded twice since then. It is time to stop talking, and it is time this government backflipped and delivered the money needed to build that flood levee for the people of Rockhampton. I want an answer from the minister. When are you going to do it?

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