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

Not only will this mine provide job opportunities for First Australians; it will also provide thousands of jobs right across Rockhampton and Townsville and the wider region. As I said, there are already 200 people who have a job on this project right now. They risk losing that job if the Labor Party continue to have their position, which is opposed to the project. Over another 120 jobs will be created at a company called Austrak in Rockhampton, building concrete sleepers. More jobs will be sustained in Whyalla, where the steel will come from to build the railway line. This project is a nation-building project.

We have a New South Wales former Premier, Bob Carr. I looked at his Diary of a Foreign Minister. I don't know what his views are on coalmining—he doesn't mention it much—but in this book he mentions his fitness regime 45 times. He says, 'My ambition is to have a deep-caved abdomen defined by deep-cut obliques'. Well, that's very good for Mr Carr. He wants to have a six-pack while denying people in North Queensland the opportunity to even buy a six-pack, because they won't have a job if the Labor Party gets their way and shuts this project down.