Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the hallmarks of the Howard government has been the government’s ability to tackle very big-picture items in the country for the benefit of Australians. We have been able to do that initially in the face of some community opposition—and, of course, a lot of opposition from the opposition—and we have done it because we know that it is right, and right for the country.

I am reminded of things that generally people do not talk about: the big changes in Centrelink, for example. Many of us will remember what the old Department of Social Security used to be like. Centrelink is now a better customer service organisation than even private business in the way that it looks after its customers. Also in areas like taxation and industrial relations there have been massive changes for the benefit of the country, and the Howard government will go down in history as being a reformist government in the interests of our nation.

One thing that we are presently engaged in is addressing the serious problems of water in the country. We have taken on the states and we have clearly signalled to the nation that we are going to fix the water mess that exists in the Murray-Darling Basin. We have promised an investment of $10 billion in that particular program and we are determined to do what needs to be done to make sure that we have a proper and sustainable water supply. But we are also looking at Northern Queensland, and that excites me because John Howard has appointed Bill Heffernan to look at those issues in the North. We currently have massive amounts of water that flow down the tropical rivers and out to sea. There is an opportunity to use that water and there is a whole range of ways in which that water might be used.

One of the possibilities is to raise the height of the existing Burdekin Dam by just a metre. That would increase its storage capacity by some 83 per cent. It currently holds 16 times the volume of Sydney Harbour—that gives you an idea of how much water we are talking about. Quite often these days we see water levels of more than a metre over the spillway of the dam, so there is an opportunity to collect that water. It may be used for further agriculture in Northern Australia. It could also be used for the people in the south-east corner of the state. I am currently involved in an investigation into getting that water to where it needs to go. I certainly encourage Bill Heffernan to talk with the people I have been talking to so that we can manage water better for our state, for our local region and for our country.