David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's a sensational move that Barnaby Joyce has undertaken—again, delivering services where they should be delivered. What a crazy idea! We hear those opposite interjecting because they don't understand what government is here to do. It's here to deliver services—and a crazy idea to put them where those services should be delivered! But those opposite, because they have no concept of rural and regional Australia, have no understanding. The latte-sipping left of the Labor Party sit over there with all the sanctimony of the Labor Party, but they don't care about rural and regional Australia. They don't understand and they don't care.

The reality is that we understand rural and regional Australia because we come from rural and regional Australia, quite proudly. I've been able to have a career. I've been able to start a business. I've been able to travel the world. But, more importantly, I've been able to raise a family in rural and regional Australia because the opportunities are there, because our government has put the environment and the infrastructure around people in rural and regional Australia to let them prosper, and that's what this report will be able to finally define. We are going to go to a part where we will be able to give real definition, to be able to come back in and let those in the Labor Party really understand what rural and regional Australia does and the importance of decentralisation. We will be able to quantify it once and for all so that the latte-sipping Left of the Labor Party can no longer scoff at those in rural and regional Australia, because we are the economic engine room of this nation.

In my electorate alone, just to give you an example, we contribute more to the GDP per capita than Townsville, Toowoomba or the Gold Coast, and in fact it doesn't take into account the three coal-fired power stations that produce more than 50 per cent of Queensland's total energy. Nor does it take into account the hundreds of millions of dollars that are taken out of the Surat Basin and put through Curtis Island—all of which, I might add while we've got those opposite sitting here, was the failure of the former federal Labor government in terms of setting up the Surat Basin, not looking at a domestic supply and now driving up electricity prices that are impacting rural and regional Australia. All of this was an admission by the former Labor government that they failed along with the state government.

And then we talk about Adani and the developments happening there. It's great to see that we've got conjecture about Adani. I would have thought those from Townsville would be out there prosecuting a case for Adani and bringing jobs to rural and regional Australia, yet all we get is interjection about the investment in rural and regional Australia and the incentives that we put in place to bring development to those parts of the world. But we've also done it around environment and free trade agreements. The free trade agreements that we've created for people in rural and regional Australia are putting real wealth into the pockets of people in my electorate right now. We are seeing that from the agreements with Japan, South Korea and China. Real dollars are being put in. That's what an environment allowing people to go and create wealth looks like. The story of Maranoa is 'just add rain', and it's because of the free trade agreements that we are seeing real wealth put in there. We are driving those small towns.

But we're also doing that through the infrastructure we've put in connecting us to the world and the global economy, because those free trade agreements mean that we need the tools of the 21st century. That is the $220 million that this government has proudly put into a mobile phone blackspot program. Never before have we had a regional development and regional telecommunications minister in cabinet. That's how important we see the development of rural and regional Australia to be. Never before has a government put money into the advancement and expansion of a mobile phone network, because we need the tools of the 21st century to be able to take advantage of the free trade agreements that we put in place. Proudly, we'll be able to deliver the NBN to my electorate long before many in metropolitan areas—and rightly so, because those are the tools of the 21st century that we need. We are delivering it now in towns like Roma, Chinchilla, Goondiwindi and Longreach—proudly delivering to those people in rural and regional Australia. We are delivering real outcomes—connecting them.

Furth to connectivity—not only in a telecommunications sense but in a physical sense with the roads and the inland railway—we are proudly investing $1.6 billion in the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing or, as I like to call it, the Toowoomba bypass, because the real beneficiaries of the second range crossing will be the people of Maranoa because our product will get around the world even quicker. Plus, more than $500 million has been put into the Warrego Highway, which connects us to the global economy even quicker. We are the real beneficiaries of that investment—coupled with inland rail. Only in this last budget did we announce a further $8.4 billion to ensure that Inland Rail—a corridor of commerce from Melbourne to Brisbane—is created. This is transformational for the people of rural and regional Australia. This is thinking about the future of all those communities along that corridor. But it's also benefitting those in the eastern seaboard, because we're going to take traffic off the Pacific Highway. This is real visionary stuff that shows that this government takes rural and regional Australia for what it is worth. It is the real economic engine room of this nation.

But let me give you another, more granular example: the Building Better Regions Fund. Only in the last couple of months was Minister Nash able to announce my electorate of Maranoa would get just under $5 million for a cold-storage facility in Warwick. I live in Warwick. It has a population of somewhere in between 12,000 and 14,000 people. With this $5 million investment we will create 143 new jobs, 136 indirect jobs and 80 jobs during construction. More than 200 new families will come to Warwick. That's a significant increase in the population of that community. That is real economic development. That is showing confidence in rural and regional Australia. That is showing that we understand that they are the engine room of this nation, and that we are the ones that create the wealth. This report will show that, when we finally get through and allow the people of rural and regional Australia to put their voices forward and say what is needed to continue to develop as a community and as an economy, with strong regions we will have a strong nation, because we are the engine room of this nation, and this government has made that investment.

I'm proud to say that this government understands that, through the environment and infrastructure we are putting around those in rural and regional Australia, we are the ones showing the confidence in rural and regional Australia. Now is the time to define that and to clearly articulate that we can come back and show the benefits of what we have done as a government. That will then prosecute the case for further investment in rural and regional Australia. When governments lead the way, we are seeing that private enterprise will follow. That is what we need to ensure we do as a government: lead the way in the investment in rural and regional Australia.

I'm proud to be part of a government that has started this inquiry. I'm proud to be part of a government that is already delivering. But how do we define it even better, to make it better for the lives of people in rural and regional Australia—I've proudly lived all of my life in rural and regional Australia—for each and every one and for generations to come?

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