Senate debates

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

Bills

Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Amendment (Extension and Other Measures) Bill 2021; Second Reading

6:56 pm

Photo of Susan McDonaldSusan McDonald (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Amendment (Extension and Other Measures) Bill 2021. It's interesting. I have come to this place specifically to support legislation and actions such as this. It is the comments of both the opposition and the Greens that provide resolve and steel in my heart as to why this was the right decision—the fantastical description of northern Australia and the complete lack of understanding of the outrageous control provided by inner-city Greens and people who have no understanding of the potential of northern Australia and the opportunities it provides, of what they continue to deny to the communities in northern Australia, both Indigenous and other. It is enough to make me weep.

So I support the amendments that have been brought forward by Minister Keith Pitt, as they are practical and able to continue facilitating the financing of critically important projects in northern Australia. This coalition government is about turbo charging its investment program and agenda for northern Australia, to make it easier for projects to receive funding and to generate economic development and jobs, not just as the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic but into the future. As part of the 2020-21 budget our government announced reforms to the NAIF to provide more flexibility, increase risk appetite and widen the scope of eligible projects.

It sticks in my craw that we have members of the Greens—who have left the chamber, of course—who are not prepared to listen to the reality of what is going on. They're not interested in understanding that there was no battery in the proposed infrastructure that was rejected by the minister. There is no reality in their concept that this is a fund that has been established only to fund fossil fuel projects. This is a fund that allows an intervention in the capital crisis that is happening in north Australia. It has been the failure of the market for insurance and, more broadly, the failure of our banking institutions to lend to projects—not just large ones but small ones, like truck stops, housing and other business projects. The proposed reforms seek to address stakeholder criticism of the NAIF regarding it being risk averse and not proactive enough and follow recommendations from the statutory review of the NAIF.

I'm going to touch on just a couple of the proposed amendments to the NAIF Act 2016, the first of which is to extend the period of time in which the NAIF can make investment decisions to 30 June 2026. This is critically important, because the government's announcement recently on the re-investment pool, the $10 billion program over 10 years, will facilitate greater investment in the north, which has not been able to happen due to the market failure in northern Australia. It will accelerate lending, allowing the NAIF to lend directly to proponents under certain circumstances.

There's been some comment about whether or not the states should have approval points in this process. Remember that, in addition to the state jurisdictions not providing any finance in NAIF approval, not having any skin in the game, there is also an extensive array of approval processes at local government, state government and federal government level. So this suggestion that the NAIF is in any way going to threaten the environmental, cultural or other parts of northern Australia is fanciful. This is a nation that's tied up in so much red tape, so many approval processes, that we could not possibly provide any more opportunity to stop projects than we already do.

Senator Waters referred to the precautionary principle. We in the north are very familiar with the precautionary principle. Projects apply for approval and, after seven or eight years, withdraw their application because there is no way through the approval processes of local, state and sometimes federal governments. These changes will allow the approvals process to be sped up, at least for NAIF funding. Remembering that projects have already gone through an approval process and there is no financial skin in the game for the states, projects sit on state government Treasurers' desks for 283-odd days, on average. Guess who pays for that? The project proponents, who are spending money on consultants and on other sorts of approval processes. That is coming out of money that could be spent on the ground to improve businesses and communities in northern Australia.

The change in the legislation will also permit the NAIF to establish on-lending partnerships with local financiers to improve access to NAIF finance for smaller project proponents. These partners have the expertise to work with smaller proponents to demonstrate their suitability for NAIF finance and will extend the NAIF's reach to those smaller projects that need added assistance in these economically challenging times. This is an incredibly exciting change. I've got projects lining up. We're racking and stacking projects that will bring jobs and economic prosperity to northern Australia, and they're waiting on these changes to go through the Senate.

There is absolutely no way that we should be allowing this bill to be referred to any other committee, when it has been subjected to statutory reviews and to Senate inquiries. The work has been done. We cannot delay these people getting on with terrific projects that will bring real jobs, prosperity and opportunity to our communities in northern Australia.

The NAIF was previously restricted to funding physical construction works only. I'm delighted that these changes, the practical changes brought by the very practical minister, Minister Pitt, will allow NAIF finance to be available to additional elements of infrastructure construction, such as equipment purchases or leasing, training and the expansion of existing business operations. These reforms will ensure that the NAIF can take a holistic approach to supporting economic growth and jobs.

It might interest members of the opposition and the Greens to know that total NAIF investment is now sitting at $2.9 billion, money that has gone out the door. These are completed projects like the centre of excellence at the Cowboys stadium in Townsville, the construction of the accommodation at JCU, the approval of the hydro project at Kidston. There are projects right across Australia that are going to bring real jobs, real opportunity to the north. Again, it is time for people based in inner-city Melbourne, inner-city Brisbane to stop lecturing those of us who live in northern Australia and are desperate for this opportunity, desperate for this kind of capital availability. We've also talked about empowering the NAIF to use equity finance. Again, I'm not sure what part of what risk means I need to explain to the opposition and the Greens. What these changes to the NAIF will do is they will allow the government to take a stake in some of these investment opportunities, to take a risk and back businesses that will build developments, that will build agriculture and irrigation projects, that will build mining projects, that will build the supporting infrastructure that communities need and want. The Greens and Labor will talk about risk, but they never talk about opportunity because they never put their hands in their own pockets and build something—a job, a project. Instead, that is always left to real people, real conservatives, and this is what this legislation is going to do.

We're also strengthening the governance of the board by giving it a greater mix, adding a government board member, making the Minister for Finance jointly responsible for the investment mandate, allowing the NAIF board to delegate decision-making where appropriate, and adding experience and economic development for Indigenous communities to the list of relevant areas for board expertise. We are providing $83.5 million from 2020-21 to 2025-26 to the NAIF for the five-year extension and to implement these reforms. As I said, there has been a statutory review. It commenced in July 2019, it was released in 2020, it made 28 recommendations. This review was extensive, with over 100 entities consulted and 122 face-to-face meetings across the north taking place. I was part of a select committee of the Senate on the effectiveness of the northern Australia agenda. It was chaired by the opposition and it recommended that these reforms recommended by the statutory review be passed by the parliament as a priority. Well, here we are trying to pass the recommendations of the statutory review, and I am delighted to hear Senator Watt talking about supporting these changes to the NAIF. But it is embarrassing to have a shadow minister who doesn't understand the difference between money approved and money out the door, who doesn't understand the way project funds are drawn down in a project, who doesn't understand that sometimes a project can be completed before the funds are drawn down, and yet continues banging on about this in this Senate chamber. It's becoming tiresome.

I think we might need to run some sort of workshop, finance 101. While we're at it, we'll do water 101 because I'm tired of being lectured by opposition senators who don't understand that water rights sit with the states. The water resource plans and the water allocations are held by the state governments and that happens under the federal Constitution. The reason that works is that as states we are so parochial. We don't want to hand over approvals for water projects to anybody else. It doesn't matter how much money the federal government throws at water projects—currently we're up to $3.5 billion being available for water projects in this country—and can we build a dam in Queensland? Of course we can't because Labor doesn't believe in water projects. They don't believe in developing the north, they don't believe in opportunity and prosperity for people who live north of Brisbane because they don't understand what it's like.

But those of us who do live in that part of the country know the opportunities, know the people, the families, and the communities—people like Senator Matt Canavan, who lives in Rockhampton, and me; I live in Townsville. We know the opportunities. We talk about them at every barbecue and at every meeting. We wring our hands and say: 'Why can't the south understand what could happen if you unleash the potential of the north—the potential of our people, the potential of massive rainfall, and the potential of suitable soils that has been already demonstrated by the CSIRO in multiple studies? Why is it that we continue to have our hands tied behind our back? Why are our children's opportunities removed by second-class education given by the state education departments? Why do we have second-class roads and state departments that don't spend the maintenance money for roads that they have in their budgets? Why do state governments continue to treat anybody in the northern half of Australia as some kind of second-class citizen?' I think they think we are possibly a little bit simple. I think they think we're not smart enough to come in out of the sun, but we know what is possible in the north. These NAIF reforms will help us in part to deliver for Australia, for our families, and for our communities. I commend these changes and I will be supporting them 1,000 per cent.

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