Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

If you down to the woods today you are certain of a big surprise, because you will probably find in the woods a little cabinet, and in that cabinet you will find Eddie Obeid being appointed there by the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Bob Carr. That is as big a surprise as you will get with the ALP. Lots of surprises with the ALP in New South Wales. Lots of surprises: Eddie Obeid, Ian McDonald. Lots and lots of surprises.

Going back to the issue. I find it rather amusing that here we have the Greens' motion saying there is urgent need for the government to apply the benefits of the mining boom when the Greens do not believe in mining. I can help the Labor Party out here. You are supposed to get stuck into the Greens because of the hypocrisy of the statement. The Greens do not believe in mining. Which mine do the Greens believe in? They do not believe in coal mining, they want to shut it all down. They do not believe in any of the infrastructure that goes with mining. They do not believe in any form of mining. They are applying the benefits of the mining boom, but tell us: which mines? Which mines do you believe are culturally sensitive? Which mines do you want to go forward with? Which mines are you proposing? Everything about the Greens is hypocrisy.

The Greens motion also mentions dealing with the issues of addressing acute urban challenges. This is the other part of the logic of the Greens: you take the wealth from the regional areas and you move it to the urban areas. Forget about all the people who live in between. Forget about regional Australia. Let's just take the wealth out of the regional areas—out of Blackwater, out of Singleton, out of Cessnock—and move it to Paddington and West End. That is where you need the wealth of the mining areas—in Darling Harbour. We just heard the Labor Party talking about this. Congratulations: Sydney is a beautiful city. But one of the problems we have got with the rail issue—and they talked about all their investment in rail—is that they have never built the inland rail, they have never brought about intermodal port access, they have not connected Melbourne up to Brisbane. We are the only nation on earth where our second-biggest city is not directly connected to our third-biggest city. They do not believe in that. $30 million is all they have put in the forward estimates for that, but they are investing it all in Sydney.

Yet the obvious one they will not build. And you know why they will not build it? Because they have got to look after their mates at Port Botany. We should be doing the logical thing and creating a corridor of commerce so the people of the Tamworth, the people of Dubbo and the people of Victoria get the capacity to link up to the mining fields of central Queensland. We would have the capacity to move product and we could create the commercial opportunities so people could get in on the ground floor. That is the sort of vision that people want. That is the sort of vision that the National Party offers. That is the sort of vision that the coalition offers.

But let's go back to the Greens. They always tell us about their economic credibility. This is how deep their economic credibility goes. They do not believe in mining, but they want the mining tax to pay for Gonski, the NDIS, Denticare and high-speed rail. That is $280 billion worth of promises. The problem we have got is even Rudd's mining tax only brings in about $100 billion. We have got in one item of their so-called fiscal oversight a $180 billion black hole. This is because they are incredible. They lack credibility. This is the conclusion people came to in Western Australia, where they have said that they are well-meaning but they are just off with the fairies. Nothing they say, if you hold their hand to the flame, makes any sense. We have got this inner urban sort of nostalgia that is desirous of the regional areas to basically give the benevolence of the resources that live in their areas to make their lives better. That would make sense because, when you go to the Greens senators, it is easy to work out what they believe in by where they live.

Senator Wright's office is in 100 King William Street, Adelaide—5000—right on the knocker. 5000—bang smack in the middle of town. We have got Larissa Waters—251 Given Street, Paddington. Paddington is a lovely spot. That is where you want to be, it is a lovely spot. Rachel Siewert—she lives in Northbridge—bang smack in the middle of Perth—6003. You cannot get much closer to the middle of the circle than that. Senator Lee Rhiannon is right out there in the sticks—she lives in Surry Hills. She is a long way out. Senator Milne—Hobart 7000—smack, bang in the middle again.