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

I firmly believe it is the role of all elected representatives at all levels of government to stand up for those they claim to represent. In the past week, we have seen the Premier of Western Australia, Mr Colin Barnett, do exactly that—stand up for his state and the people who make it great. By raising mining royalties the Premier is securing the funds required to invest in his state from the funds produced by his state. Combined with this is the fact that WA's Royalties for Regions program is the country's best method of royalties for distribution. It came about as a result of the WA Nationals standing up for rural and regional areas in WA. The fact that Premier Barnett's action affects the federal government's proposed mining tax is of no consequence to the people of WA, who are no doubt proud of their Premier for standing up for their rights.

In Queensland, the other resource-rich state, the situation is not the same. There is no 'royalties for regions program'. There is, however, an unofficial 'royalties for the south-east corner program', where the government sucks up the wealth from the north, bleeding dry the communities that are working hard and paying the social price for creating that wealth, and then wrings out billions of dollars from these regions and pumps them into wasteful, frivolous projects in the south-east corner. This week, state parliament meets in Mackay, my home town, the prime example of a community feeling the strain of the mining boom accompanied by government neglect. So I would like to challenge the Queensland Treasurer, Andrew Fraser, to take a stand like WA has taken. I challenge Mr Fraser to consult with the mining industry and then sensibly increase mining royalties and quarantine those funds for the purpose of reinvesting in the regions that are impacted by mining. In doing so, he will be standing up to the federal government's mining tax which will bleed billions of dollars from the Mackay region and funnel it into places like Sydney and Melbourne.

Today, the state government announced $40 million for a bridge over Fursden Creek in Mackay. This is to fix a stuff-up they created when they built a bridge to direct traffic over a river and straight into a flood zone. This belated investment is a mere drop in the ocean when you consider that almost $1.1 billion went into the state coffers last financial year through royalties and the coal exported through the ports of Hay Point, Dalrymple Bay and Abbot Point, all of which are in the Mackay region—and that was in the middle of the global financial crisis. The year before that we contributed more than $2.2 billion in royalties, and this year there will be another billion-dollar bonanza in royalties from our region for the state. So now is the time for the Treasurer of Queensland to stand up to the federal government and their proposed mining tax. Now is the time to raise royalties and introduce a 'royalties for the region' style program in our state. Now is the time for Mr Fraser to stand up for the Queenslanders that he is supposed to represent.