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

The new taxes are coming in—I think there are five new taxes, or it could be 10 new taxes. With Labor, you can never be sure, because they certainly like to tax everything that moves. With the failure of the state Labor government in Queensland and in the Northern Territory, which I've had a bit to do with over the years, when you speak to those who are involved in the building and construction sector in Darwin and Palmerston, they say they are hurting. They are really hurting—and so are those in Queensland—because of the lack of leadership.

The building and construction sector employs 1.2 million people. That's numerous families, millions of people. Their livelihoods—their ability to put food on the kitchen table, to pay their electricity bills and to put petrol in their car—depend on us having a strong building and construction sector. That's why it's so important we come to issues such as the very important one that Senator Patrick has raised. I commend him for raising this issue, but I don't support the bill, because I'm a federalist and don't like the federal government continuing to stick its nose in areas which are the responsibility of the states and territories.

The best thing that my fellow Queenslanders can do in about 400 days time is elect the Liberal-National Party into power in Queensland; they will be able to deal with this issue. One of the tragedies in my home state of Queensland is that we've got so much potential—with all due respect to all the other senators in the chamber, apart from Senator Scarr, we are the best state—except, essentially, over the last 30 years—