Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the statement made by the Minister for Northern Australia. My electorate, Leichhardt, is the perfect embodiment of northern Australia, and, while some will point to Townsville as the capital of the far north, they are wrong; it is in fact Cairns. But Cairns is just the gateway to a much broader and spectacular part of the world. If you'll indulge me, Deputy Speaker Aldred, I would like to go on a little bit of a geography tour of a place I know that you know well, as I ran into you randomly one day at one of the local shopping centres as you were enjoying many of the delights that Cairns has to offer.

So we'll start in Cairns. Cairns is a thriving, metropolitan city. It is multicultural. It has many different industries. It is welcoming. It is beautiful. It is home to the reef fleet and the Great Barrier Reef, the gateway to Green Island, Osprey Reef, Lizard Island and Fitzroy Island, where I believe my daughter is right now celebrating schoolies. It is a truly magnificent place. We have over 128 different cultures that are celebrated en masse. Over 10,000 people went to the recent India Day festivals. Diwali was a huge celebration. We are multicultural, we are proud of it and we pull together. We have a shipping industry. Over $250 million is run through our shipping repairs, including working on our naval boats. It is a truly beautiful place. It is also home to the far north's only national sporting team, my beloved Cairns Taipans, who we wish were going better—but we can't have everything.

If you spend a few days in Cairns, you might think, 'What else is on offer?' so you'll start driving north. You'll get to the tourism hotspot, the destination, that is Port Douglas, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The golf course there, Palmer Sea Reef golf course, has the crocodile on the first hole lurking in the water trap. You just let the ball go if it's too close to the edge. It is one of the places that people put on their bucket list. Port Douglas is amazing. I would encourage everybody to get there as soon as possible.

A little bit further on we've got Mossman, home of the Mossman Gorge Cultural Centre, a world renowned Indigenous cultural area. Mossman is currently transitioning away from sugar cane. They are having discussions about what their future looks like, and, while this is a tough time for them, they are built of really strong stuff. There is a frontier attitude, a pioneering attitude, that is part of the far north that I know will serve them greatly.

If you leave Mossman, you've got to head up a bit further. Now we're at the gateway to Cape York. The gateway itself positions itself as Lakeland, with its bananas—some of the best bananas on the planet!—as far as the eye can see. At Lakeland, you have a choice: continue on straight and head up to Wujal Wujal, Cooktown and Hope Vale or take a left and drift out to Coen, Kowanyama, Pormpuraaw, Weipa, Aurukun and Lockhart River. We'll stay right for the moment.

Once you get to Cooktown, a historical place—it used to be that over 30,000 people lived in Cooktown during the gold rush. It is now down to about 3½ thousand, but they are proud. They have a great tourism industry, a great fishing industry and a fantastic bowls club if you need a cold beer and a good feed at the end of the day. Close to Cooktown is Wujal Wujal, a beautiful, beautiful place nestled in the rainforest—the rainforest people. Wujal Wujal obviously suffered catastrophic effects through Cyclone Jasper. Everyone had to move out, but I am pleased to say they're back. The sports hall has reopened. They're rebuilding their arts centre. That community is as strong as ever. To the other side of Cooktown is Hope Vale, home of Noel Pearson, who has brought so much positive change to Indigenous Australians. It's a town that bats well above its weight. It is strong. It is proud.

Back down to Lakeland, we're going to head out to the western cape now. We'll start at Lockhart River, tucked away—well, it's actually on the eastern cape; you've got to go west first. It's a trick of the road! The PDR is one of those—look, it is a bucket-list experience. The PDR gets you all the way up to Pajinka. Lockhart River is the home of five different clans, fantastic fishing and some of the best art in the cape. It is also where the American fighter pilots were based during World War II, and the rocks in the ocean carry the scars of the 50-millimetre guns that were shot during target practice.

We'll go back down onto the PDR and out to Aurukun, with fantastic art and fantastic people. I've spent many days there, running basketball clinics for kids, bringing up shoes, and spending time with Steve Norman at the PCYC as they show their children how to make good choices and as they build the leaders of tomorrow.

Weipa is a mining town—there's bauxite as far as the eye can see—but it is developing. It is now a town town. There are almost more small businesses now in Weipa than there are miners. It is ready to take that next step. Just south of Weipa is Napranum, which is a beautiful little spot. They want to become the food bowl for Rio Tinto. It's a really great ambition. To the north, in Mapoon, they are getting ready for cultural tourism when the cruise ships start arriving in the western cape next year. Down further south we've got Kowanyama and Pormpuraaw, the place of many waters, with great art and great fishing.

Then, finally, up top we have the NPA. The NPA is home to a truly unique culture, where Aboriginal land was gifted to the Torres Strait Islanders. It is a place where the two cultures mix, merge and create something truly unique and beautiful. As our great industry—there's possibly gas out there. People drive all the way up to Pajinka, staying in Bamaga, and then of course Zenadth Kes, the Torres Strait, home of Eddie Koiki Mabo, and the multiple different islands. It's the only regional council with an international border. Councillor Chelsea sits there and ticks people off as they drift over from PNG for cultural ceremonies and for trade. It is the most northern part of northern Australia.

The thing that all of these places have in common is the limitless potential—the potential of the people, the potential of the minerals, and the potential of the tourism. It is all there at our fingertips, and it is great to hear Minister King speak of the potential and the opportunity that is presented to northern Australia—not just my part of the world, but right the way across. The world is pivoting north. All roads are leading north. We're pivoting our international focus towards the South Pacific. We are tailor made for it. We are in the right place geographically. We have the right things, we have the right space and we have the right people.

I'm proud to be a part of government. I'm proud to have been put here by the people of Leichhardt to try to snatch these opportunities, to become the renewable powerhouse that I know we can be. Some of the best silica in the world is located in Leichhardt. As some might know, silica is essential in the building of solar panels. There is opportunity for manufacturing there. The Indigenous rangers know country backwards. They understand carbon capture and farming and have been doing it for tens of thousands of years. In doing so, they're showing the way for new industries to evolve—carbon capture, blue carbon, all of these storage options—using ancient knowledge. There is a lot of space up there for carbon capture.

On cultural tourism, we have something unique, something nowhere else in the world can talk about: the world's oldest living culture. 60,000 years. The art decorates the rocks. The language is still spoken in many of the small communities. It breathes, and it's real. Sit with the elders. They'll tell you the stories. They'll show you the dances. Last time I was in Mapoon, I ran into a group called Indigital, who are taking the stories and putting them into a Minecraft-style game so that you can live and walk the Dreaming. The kids get to design the characters. It is a great community-building exercise, as the elders sit down with the young ones and tell them the story. It takes ancient knowledge and puts it in a 21st century context. That's what the Far North is: an ancient and wild place ready to take on the 21st century in a way that not many other places are positioned to do.

I want to commend the minister for working with northern Australia, for understanding the challenges that we face, but not turning her back on us. Sometimes, when challenges present themselves, it can become too hard for people. They're not sure what to do or where to go. But through every challenge there is opportunity, and we have so much opportunity. We will carry Australia forward in the renewable transition with our critical minerals. We will show the world who we are through our cultural tourism. We will protect and promote the mighty Daintree, the Great Barrier Reef and the wildness of Cape York. We will celebrate the unique culture of Zenadth Kes, whose elders are actually in this building today meeting with us.

It is my honour to represent northern Australia. It is my honour to defend northern Australia. And I am so proud to be here doing so with a government that believes in the opportunity that my region possesses. Thank you.

See this speech in context