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

I thank Senator O'Sullivan for the question. Unfortunately, there is only one major party in Queensland that supports the jobs that will come from the Galilee Basin. The reason we support opening up the Galilee Basin is that it will deliver thousands of jobs to the people of Queensland. These are areas of Queensland that are suffering under high levels of unemployment. High levels of unemployment continue in both Townsville and Rockhampton. We were buoyed a month ago by the decision of Adani to host their fly-in fly-out hubs in those two cities. That is exactly the tonic North Queensland needs. And now there is only one choice at the Queensland election for people who want to back jobs and development in North Queensland. Unfortunately, the Premier is the second coming of Clive Palmer to the people of Townsville. In Clive Palmer, they had a bloke who made a lot of promises over the last few years. He said they were going to get jobs—just like the Premier has said in the last 18 months—and at the last minute pulled out of that town and caused economic devastation. I don't want to see that happen to the people of Townsville again. The only way we can deliver jobs to them is through the election of a Liberal National Party government now.