Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I too would like to pass on my congratulations on your appointment. Senator O'Sullivan makes a very important point. About 10 days ago, the Queensland government pulled their support for the job-creating Adani Carmichael Mine project. It was an act of betrayal of the people of North Queensland. The Queensland government have been leading the people of North Queensland down the garden path on this issue. It was the Queensland government who first applied to the federal government asking us to fund the Galilee Basin rail line in February last year. In May this year the Queensland government wrote to me confirming their support for that investment after some controversy and internal civil war erupted in the Labor Party.

Real people in North Queensland have been making real decisions about their future based on what they thought was the Queensland government's support for their region and this investment. People have been buying houses, investing in businesses, taking up jobs—there are nearly 200 people in Townsville working for Adani now—and moving their families there because they thought the Queensland government backed them and was in their corner. They are not in their corner. We know that now.

Ten days ago the Queensland Premier came up with the cockamamie story that, because of the work of her partner, she had to pull the economic rug out from under the people of Queensland. That excuse didn't stack up; no-one believed that from day one. So the very next day the Premier was saying it wasn't because of that; it was because the project had to stand on its own two feet. That was the second excuse. The third excuse was from the Queensland Treasurer later that week. He said, 'The project is just not that popular; that's why we've pulled our support.' Now we have seen reports over the weekend that, in fact, the Queensland cabinet decided in May not to support federal government investment in the rail line. What have they been hiding from us for six months? Why have they been treating the people of North Queensland with this contempt? You'd think the Queensland government would have got their story straight before they called the election. They called the election—no-one else—but they're all over the shop on jobs in Queensland.