James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

All of Queensland is a beautiful place. I cannot choose one part of Queensland over the other, because that would be career limiting for a senator. You should go to the Darling Downs sometime, particularly Warwick. I'm glad you raised the issue of Warwick, Senator. It's very, very sad, though—I was texting my dad before so, 'Hi, Bruce'—in that there has been no rain at home for a while. It is a very sad situation—this is a serious point—that the drought is impacting on Queensland. It has been going on for some time. That's why it's so good that the—

An opposition senator interjecting—

I'm not letting go now. I got 14 minutes and 43 seconds to go. In this sitting fortnight, we have been able to pass legislation that was foreshadowed in the Governor-General's address in relation to what we can do to help those who are impacted by the drought. We can also assist those with the farm household allowance in terms of the changes that were passed by the Senate yesterday.

The drought is an issue that is threatening not just the viability of rural, regional and remote Queensland, it is a natural disaster that will impact upon the entire economy of Australia. We know that when the bush does well that the cities do well. We also know that when the bush does not do well—when that rain does not fall, when that dirt does not become mud and when those crops do not grow and the beasts do not live—the cities will hurt.

We are in the midst of a drought that is akin to the one that hit Australia in the seventies. We can talk about the great drought of the 1890s—there's nothing great about it when you think about it. This is the terrible drought of the 2000s.

As Senator Scarr, Senator Stoker, Senator Renick and Senator McDonald know—we have almost the full suite of Queensland senators here, and Senator Canavan is no doubt watching me in his office—there are children in Queensland who are yet to feel the magic of rain falling on their heads, because the drought in parts of Queensland has been going for almost eight years—

Senator Duniam interjecting—

That is a shame, as Senator Duniam says.

The government cannot make it rain, but we can help those who are suffering, whether they are on the land or just as importantly in the towns because—this is what people sometimes don't understand—when it becomes dry in the bush the towns also become dry, because it means the graziers and the farmers do not have the money to spend in the shops. They do not have money to spend in the farm supply businesses. When the money is not spent in those towns and villages it becomes this vicious, vicious cycle, because those businesses do not have customers going through their front doors. And if the customers do not go through the front doors it means staff will have to be laid off and that perpetuates the cycle. That is why, sadly—and Senator McDonald in her brilliant maiden speech talked about the ghost towns of Queensland—we are seeing, or have seen, living towns at the moment that are on the verge of dying. This is where the government does have a role—a role to help those towns survive, to help those on the land survive. This is why you go into power. This is why you go into politics. This is why you go into parliament because you want to go in to help people, and you want to help those people who do not have a voice—those quiet people.

Some of those who spoke up on May 18 were those quiet Australians who wear the big hats and have those sunburnt faces from spending a lifetime out in the sun. Those quiet farmers and graziers, those who work on the land, spoke up, because they wanted to make sure that they had a government that was on their side. Because, sadly, what the election showed was that some on the left of politics no longer understand rural Queensland and rural Australia. The opposition want to bring in vegetation management laws—and they want to do preference deals with the Greens—and replicate the Queensland Labor Party's vegetation management laws nationally. They thought that was the answer to the drought: to bring in more bureaucracy, to bring in more red tape on farmers, to stop those farmers from getting on and turning Australia into a food bowl—a food bowl for not just us but the rest of the world.

With your permission, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle, I will make a slight diversion: I was in Hughenden on Saturday in the Flinders Shire. We, the Queensland senators, all know Jane McNamara, a wonderful mayor. There are many wonderful mayors, but you don't want to choose a favourite up in that neck of the woods because the others will lynch you. They're all brilliant mayors, but Jane McNamara, the Flinders Shire Council and a lot of people did a lot of work to bring together an agreement between the shire, the people of the shire and a company to build a meat-processing facility—an abattoir, in plain English—and a feedlot, in Hughenden. This is so important because they want to be able to process some of the finest cattle in Australia in Hughenden and send it direct to China. The emerging middle classes in India and China know that Australian produce, whether it is from cattle, sheep—or even goat, in some cases; if you go out to Charleville people are pretty keen on goat—or our crops, is clean and tastes good. We can value-add to it, as my colleague Senator Scarr, said. That is a good story. That is something that should be able to unite everybody in this chamber: in a small remote part of Queensland—I don't think it is remote; Hughenden to me is just down the road, but it's classified by those who know better that it is remote—a small rural council has been able to work with a company to try to bring together a facility that will put jobs into Hughenden, stop the decline of that town and stop it turning into a ghost town. That is brilliant, brilliant news.

So, the people in Hughenden understood that 18 May was about the future of Australia to make sure that those who shriek on Twitter weren't running this country. The people who are running this country are—

Senator Sinodinos interjecting—

those quiet Australians, as Senator Sinodinos says. Those people aren't actually on Twitter. They probably don't know what Twitter is—and that's also sensible life advice: never go on Twitter! Although, Senator Sinodinos, I think you are on Twitter, aren't you? Renowned troll! But I digress—a troll of the Left, which is very, very good. So, these quiet Australians wanted a government to get out of their lives, to cut taxes. What is the first thing that this government did?