George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise at a time when the country is facing unprecedented challenges due to the impact of the coronavirus and at a time when the world is bracing for the further effects of what is now being classed by many as a pandemic. It certainly has been classed as such by the Morrison-McCormack coalition government.

The coronavirus emergency response plan has been initiated. That action has been taken not to cause panic but, rather, to enable our services to take further action so that we are as fully prepared as we possibly can be to cope with what is to come. Australians should take comfort in the position the country is in, and I want to acknowledge the decisive and early steps taken by this government about two weeks ago, led by our Prime Minister and our Deputy Prime Minister, in putting in place measures to restrict movements into the country and enforce quarantine and self-isolation measures. That was not necessarily popular, but, as coronavirus continues to spread and take its toll on human life and causes extreme difficulties in other countries, I think we can all agree that the measures that were taken were the right ones. Those measures are working, and I personally thank our Prime Minister for his leadership on this matter.

I would also note that the Prime Minister's leadership stands in stark contrast to that of the Leader of the Opposition, who on this matter, on Thursday last week, chose to play politics and call a series of divisions for the sole purpose of disrupting the operations of this House. The Prime Minister, the health minister and others on the National Security Committee of cabinet had asked for pairs so they could sit out those divisions and focus on the important task on that day, which was to make decisions about further responses to coronavirus. I note that Labor refused those requests and continued to call for division after division that day. The national security meeting was interrupted some seven times by those divisions, as our ministers had to head into the chamber for pointless vote after pointless vote. Shame on the opposition for putting petty politics ahead of the safety of this country.

As we continue to feel the effects economically from coronavirus, I want to mention the work of the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth, of which I am chairman. We have just commenced an inquiry into diversifying Australia's trade and investment profile. This will look at whether we need to diversify Australia's trade markets, and it will consider our level of reliance on foreign investment. Recent events have ultimately highlighted our vulnerability as a nation, and it's important to consider ways in which we can mitigate these risks. We are taking submissions from interested individuals, businesses and organisations until 9 April, and I would point out to interested people to go to the trade committee's web page to find out more.

Despite the difficulties we are currently facing, there is much to celebrate in terms of what's being delivered and what's going to be delivered. I want to focus on some of the Australian government's investments and plans for future delivery to secure the future of North Queensland and Central Queensland, to improve the facilities that we have and to provide a better standard of living for all.

I'm going to start with water security—most notably, dams. Firstly, I note the $10 million investment which has gone to the Bowen-Collinsville Enterprise economic development group to progress the Urannah dam project to shovel-ready stage. It's a project that both I and the member for Capricornia, who is in the chamber, are very interested in because of the economic benefits it will bring about for our respective electorates and the communities therein. The 1½ million megalitre Urannah dam will be a game changer for the region. It'll open up at least 22½ thousand hectares of high-value agricultural land. It'll support regional communities like Bowen and Proserpine in my electorate, and Collinsville in the member for Capricornia's electorate. It will also supply water for current and future mining projects. The Urannah Water Scheme provided an update just recently on their progress. GHD, the renowned engineering firm, are their consultants, and they're set to begin site studies any day now, which will involve soil sampling and many other things. The other big news for Urannah is that the renewable energy hub which will be located near the dam received a $2 million grant towards the development of a proposed 1.5-gigawatt pumped-hydro electric plant. The Urannah Water Scheme and the renewable energy hub combined will deliver water security for North Queensland, and another source of fairly reliable power to go into the grid.

Another investment is in a project eagerly awaited by both North Queenslanders and Central Queenslanders, a high-efficiency low-emissions coal-fired power station at Collinsville, which sits in the electorate of Capricornia but will provide lower electricity prices for the entirety of North and Central Queensland. This government has invested $4 million to support Shine Energy's feasibility study for this proposed one-gigawatt plant. While Labor has trashed this idea, I have to say that there have been two different studies: one conducted by the current Queensland Labor government and another conducted with funding that was allocated by the former Gillard Labor government. Both of those studies have pointed out that a clean-coal-fired power station—a supercritical coal plant in North Queensland—would actually bring power prices down. Despite this, Labor wants to deny the traditional owners—Shine Energy is a traditional owner company run by the Indigenous people of Collinsville. The Birri people, the traditional owners of the Collinsville area, want an opportunity to provide jobs and a brighter future for their people, for their region. It's being talked down by the Labor leader. The Labor leader has labelled that project 'pathetic' and 'a nonsense'. Let's hope he can explain why if he has the courage to accept the invitation by the Birri people and Shine Energy to meet with them in Collinsville and find out more about their energy park project.

The Dawson electorate is specifically benefitting from a massive investment into our roads. Just four projects—the Mackay ring road stage 1, the Mackay ring road stage 2 or Mackay port access road, the Mackay northern access upgrade and the Horton River flood plain upgrade in the Burdekin—add up to almost $1½ billion in investment in the Bruce Highway in my region alone. Mackay ring road stage 1 is a $500 million project. We work hand in hand. It goes across the electorate of Dawson and the electorate of Capricornia. It's a $500 million project which is going to be completed this year. Eighty per cent of the funding—close to $400 million—comes from the Morrison-McCormack Liberal-National government. This is the biggest infrastructure project that the Mackay region has seen in a long time. Ring road stage 1 will divert traffic out of busy city street for motorists and businesses and will provide not only motorists but heavy vehicles a quicker and safer route to the north of Mackay. It's an 11.7-kilometre stretch of highway which allows this traffic to avoid 10 sets of traffic lights. It includes 13 new bridges and nine overpasses, and it lays the foundation for the Mackay ring road stage 2 or, as I called it before, the Mackay port access road.

This stage of the project puts the ring on it, if you will, by taking this road through to the port of Mackay. It provides a strategic connection between the port and the vital Bowen Basin and Galilee Basin mining regions as well as the prime agricultural regions to the west of the city and also our mining service hub area, Paget, thereby boosting our export potential and freight movements. I would also note that a recent supply chain study for the region—the Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday agribusiness export supply chain mapping study—stated that two of the key factors for realising the growth potential in our region were road infrastructure and port access, and that is happening thanks to the significant investment from the Morrison-McCormack government into our region.

Work is also beginning on another connected element for our road network, and that's the $120 million Mackay northern access upgrade. The work will include increasing the Bruce Highway from four lanes to six from the Ron Camm Bridge to Mackay Bucasia Road, upgrading a number of busy intersections and constructing bridge overpasses. It will reduce congestion and increase capacity at the city's northern access point.

The other half-billion-dollar project to upgrade the Bruce Highway is taking place further north at the Horton River, between Ayr and Townsville. This is a major upgrade which will replace a dangerously low-set bridge, put in two new overpasses and 13 other brides and upgrade nine rural intersections, including a few that are very unsafe. It will widen the road, install wide centre-line treatment and ultimately create a far safer option for motorists and also in terms of flood immunity on a section of the Bruce that floods regularly. About every two years it cuts off access north and south.

I should also mention another major investment into flood immunity on roads. That's in the Whitsundays, along Shute Harbour Road, which links Proserpine and the Bruce Highway to Airlie Beach and Cannonvale. The area around Hamilton Plains suffers regular flooding, which cuts off people in the Whitsundays from schools, the hospital and the local airport. This is another completely state controlled road which has been ignored for years by the Palaszczuk government. I saw an avenue for investment under our Roads of Strategic Importance program and I worked to secure $29.6 million to address the area's flooding issues, improve travel times, keep the coastal communities in the Whitsundays connected and secure the movement of tourists who come to visit our beautiful Whitsundays.

While we're focusing on the beautiful Whitsundays, I want to mention another boost to the region's economy, through the passage of laws late last year to remove import duties and cut through red tape for superyachts which are looking to holiday in our waters. This is allowing Australia, and in particular the hotspots of Cairns and the Whitsundays, to attract these big-spending superyachts to our region. This is estimated to be about $3.5 million of extra revenue into the Whitsundays region each year.

I want to touch on some of the investments in community infrastructure taking place in my electorate under programs such as the Building Better Regions Fund, before moving on to consider the sports facilities which have benefited from funding over the last year to 18 months. Sticking to Proserpine and the Whitsundays again for a moment, we are investing $5 million into the rebuild of the Proserpine Entertainment Centre, which copped an absolute hiding from Cyclone Debbie. When work started on the rebuild following the cyclone, the local council found that the building had serious defects. Rather than a repair job they needed to consider a completely new centre. I was happy to go into bat and secure that funding.

We have also invested $3.6 million into the Proserpine administration building—the council building. They are going to house a new disaster centre there. This building also suffered at the hands of Cyclone Debbie. The facility will act as a local disaster coordination centre. Due to the severe weather events—floods and cyclones—which are a fact of life in the north, this investment will benefit the entire community. Further north, in Bowen, another Building Better Regions grant of $9 million will stop waste water heading into the Great Barrier Reef and instead allow that treated water to be harnessed for local irrigation in parks and gardens and to be utilised for business and community development and perhaps even farms.

Finally, on to sport: in Mackay, the Harrup Park Country Club's Barrier Reef cricket arena project was awarded $10 million through the government's Regional Growth Fund. This will see the construction of a 2,000-seat grandstand with media and corporate facilities to attract major cricket and AFL sporting events to our region, providing diversity and another boost to the economy. The proponent, Harrup Park Country Club, is seeking funding from the state Labor government to bring the project to fruition, but they are still sitting on the sidelines at the state level. I would urge the member for Mackay to stand up for her electorate and secure funding from the Palaszczuk Labor government for that project.

Other sports projects in Mackay to receive a boost include the Mackay Basketball Association with stadium seating. The Morrison-McCormack government invested $300,000 by a community development grant to enable to club to put in the seating that they need for the hugely popular spectator sport and the other groups that use this facility. Mackay Hockey Association also received half a million dollars under the Community Sport Infrastructure Grants program to put in a new artificial turf. This will benefit 750 junior and senior hockey players in the city. Pioneer Tennis received $50,000 under the program to put up minicourts to get young players off to a good start. A number of local groups—rugby clubs, soccer clubs—received funding for lighting, enabling them to play night games or host night events. This is just about a necessity in our steamy summers. The Slade Point Rugby Union Club received $22,000. Brothers Football Club received $490,000 to light up Leprechaun Park and put in an additional field. Dolphins Football Club got $200,000 for night training facilities, and $480,000 went to the Whitsunday Moto Sports Club near Proserpine for night karting and motorbike events.

In the north of my electorate, in the southern suburbs of Townsville, we have seen investment into sporting facilities that were just about wiped out with the flooding: $500,000 for Townsville Basketball Association and $362,000 for NQ Football for female change room facilities. All these things are creating a better Dawson electorate.

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