Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I congratulate you on your role. How wonderful it is to have a Queenslander. I would prefer one from our side, but I'll take a Queenslander nonetheless. It is good to be back here amongst friends. I see the member for Gellibrand. With his long connections to the Toowoomba region he'll know just how lucky I've been to spend a lot of time with my constituency, getting out and about with the wonderful people of Groom. When we have a change of government it's important to take the opportunity to refresh, renew and get the sense of hope and vision for what we want to achieve over the coming three years. I have very much enjoyed that opportunity.

Let's look at one of the most common things that have come back to me as I travelled throughout my electorate. It is a fantastic opportunity. You can travel an hour west from Toowoomba on either the Warrego or the Gore and still stay within the seat of Groom. A common refrain at the moment is concern around foot-and-mouth disease. I think it's important to articulate this concern, particularly to towns like Oakey and Pittsworth. Fundamentally their entire economy is at risk. I don't seek to induce panic; I simply want to make very clear what this means to our regions and why they have such heightened concerns.

I was at the Barn at Oakey speaking with several small businesses that are all part of small supply chains. They feed through to these industries. Of course, we have the feedlots. We have the second-largest feedlot in the Southern Hemisphere at Grassdale, not far past Bowenville. You can stand there and see 80,000 head of cattle. It's a fantastic sight to see. We have transport companies that are entirely built around moving the cattle. We have meatworks out there that employ people from all over Australia. It's a fantastic economy all built together.

The concern that they have around that outbreak is significant. It's one that I'll continue to raise because I think it's important that they do hear their concerns raised here. The important part is that they know, like we do, that Indonesia is a very different environment to us. We rely very heavily on export dollars. That's not something that is part of the Indonesian beef market, so we do have a different approach. We do have high standards that we need for those export dollars coming in. It is so crucial.

Another key part when you drive through our electorate is the state of our local roads. So many times that comes back to us. I think particularly of the Toowoomba-Cecil Plains Road, which struggles significantly as it travels through the black soil west of our region. Obviously we've had heavy rain for such a long time. Working with the state and the council to make sure those roads are upgraded is going to be absolutely important. Regional towns that surround Groom rely upon roads not just to get to and from work but because this is how we move our product to market, how we do business and how our economies are sustained.

We have grown tremendously in Groom. As that new infrastructure comes in we need to make sure it connects well with the existing road infrastructure. I was at the corner of the Toowoomba-Athol Road and the Gore Highway. I was concerned to see how people were making legal U-turns, quite frankly, in an area that is tremendously dangerous. This can be addressed by good infrastructure. These are the sorts of concerns I want to see put through.

But underlying everything is a concern about housing in our area. We do have housing shortages and have had housing availability and affordability issues. I want to raise the great efforts of three organisations. One is Tony's Community Kitchen. They provide food and care for homeless people in our region. I was with them as they celebrated their fifty thousandth meal. That was a point of celebration for the volunteers, but not so much a celebration when you think about the need for that.

This evening BASE Services is conducting its Homelessness for a Night campaign where business leaders and community leaders experience what it's like to be homeless on a cold Toowoomba night. I thank them for the work they're doing. This is now their eighth year. They raise significant funds towards BASE Services that helps homeless people get back on their feet. They're a fantastic organisation.

The last one I want to mention is Protea Place. Protea Place provides care and support, primarily for 55-year-old-plus women who find themselves in a homelessness situation or at a crisis point in their lives. The work they do at Protea Place is absolutely remarkable. They do it in a way that maintains dignity and privacy but also with that strength and compassion that we hope can bring a community together. I thank them all for their tremendous efforts.