Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I want to use today’s debate on matters of public interest to again highlight the opportunities that abound in Northern Australia and to remind the Senate that, even now, Northern Australia, with about six per cent of Australia’s population, produces more than 30 per cent of Australia’s export earnings. Before I get onto that, I reflect on nation-building. Earlier this morning, I had the opportunity of attending a briefing from the Australian Antarctic Division on their future plans for science way down at the opposite end of our continent and our nation from Northern Australia. I was reminded, when listening to the AAD officials and Dr Tony Press, how important it is to have a vision in Australia.

Back in 1996, the new coalition government had a vision for getting access to Antarctica so we could get more scientists down there. We could do better work and we could understand world climate changes so much more easily if we could fly scientists down and back by aeroplane. Against a lot of objection and difficulties over a long period of time, that airline is now operational. Just talking to the scientists, one can understand how delighted they are that the Howard government had that vision way back in those days. That led me to look with some pride at other visionary projects constructed or started by the Howard government. Look at the Darwin to Alice Springs Railway—a nation-building, visionary project of the Liberal and National parties. Look at things like the work done to save the Great Barrier Reef, that iconic natural feature. Again, this work was started off, going back further, by the Fraser Liberal government.

Think of the current financial crisis and understand that the government yesterday spent $10 billion on assisting disadvantaged Australians but also on helping the economy. One wonders what Australia would have been like today if the current government had inherited, 10 months ago when it took office, a $96 billion debt rather than a $22 billion surplus, which it did inherit. Again, that shows the visionary outlook of consecutive Liberal-National Party governments. We can only be thankful today that we did have a government who prepared Australia for these sorts of economic global activities that are now happening—