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

Senator Watt may be able to answer this question, if he's going to make a contribution, in terms of whether she's actually listed for sale her property at Woolloongabba that she bought for three-quarters of a million dollars via text message with her husband. I am sure that the Deb Frecklington and Tim Mander government, who will be elected on 31 October, in about 400 days time, will be a government that will stand up for Queensland. They'll be a government that will make sure that, in terms of issues such as this, in Queensland the National Construction Code is something that is enforced.

Going back to my point before Senator Watt rather helpfully interrupted me: it is important that we understand that because the federal government does not have the constitutional power to regulate the built environment—that is a state government responsibility. We instead will work cooperatively with state and territory governments. And, indeed, the Liberal-National coalition government is providing leadership in this space by convening the Building Ministers Forum to facilitate a nationally consistent approach and restore confidence to the building construction sector in Australia. It's very important that, if you are someone who believes, as I do, in devolving power, taking power away from Canberra and giving it back to the states and territories or ensuring that you do not take more power away from the states and territories, you work cooperatively through all three levels of government, because local government also has a role to play here.

We shouldn't forget that the building construction industry is one of the key sectors of the Australian economy. And, sadly, in our home state—and Senator Scarr is here—the aforementioned Labor government, the Palaszczuk-Trad government, just aren't a very good government. They're a terrible government actually. I would be misleading the Senate if I said they weren't a very good government. They are actually a terrible government. Being a proud Queenslander, I don't like it when people tell Queenslanders what to do, and I certainly won't tell New South Wales people or even great senators from the state of South Australia what to do. But, in Queensland, we are being let down by our state Labor government. We are being let down by the leadership, or lack of leadership, they are showing in terms of the economy.