Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to welcome the announcement from Eva Copper about their financial investment decision, which was just made yesterday. This is incredibly important in the north-west minerals province of North West Queensland. This is the sort of project that we know needs to come forward to build Australia's national security and national prosperity, and it will produce, on average, 65,000 tonnes of copper and 19,000 tonnes of gold per annum over the life of the mine. This is a well-known brownfield development. The north-west is the place that will be well supported by the CopperString project. This is the kind of investment that northern Australia needs to see, not just to develop its critical minerals and central minerals but also to see defence and community supported in the north, as well as our great agricultural industry in the region. This has been well received by the community, and I'm just delighted to see that this investment has taken a $2½ billion investment on average.

This takes real capital. We should welcome it and the fact that this business has invested in Australia and not in one of the many offshore competition. It will generate around $17 billion for Queensland and for Australia. This is the kind of project that builds real prosperity and real jobs and builds the prosperity of the nation. It just reminds us, though, why it is so important that we be investing in the right infrastructure and the right development, not just for the mines but also for the community that supports it and for the families that go to work in copper mines, as well as for the small businesses in the Cloncurry region that will support it. So I am really delighted to welcome this investment and to support the investment, both for the mining company and for the entire region that will drive Queensland's prosperity into the future. Well done, Eva Copper.

I turn now to a really important topic, of Australian butcher shops. This is the ultimate small business. These are the sorts of people that not only provide you with the best protein and the best meat for your family but will tell you how to cook it and give you a wink and a smile at the same time. This is an incredible part of our northern economy, and so it was shocking to see the Australian government do a review that excludes butcher shops from Centrepay payments. I know of a small butcher shop in North Queensland that supplies Indigenous community members who come in from the cape and the surrounds of Cairns. They come in to buy good-quality protein for their families and for their communities so that they can cook it because they don't have access to local fresh protein in their own communities. But, under Services Australia, they've made the decision to exclude only butcher shops. Of course, you can still buy meat from the supermarket. I think that's outrageous. This is the sort of small business that employs apprentices and that makes sure that Indigenous communities and other vulnerable and disadvantaged people are able to use their Centrepay card to buy real food. But butchers have been excluded.

So we will be fighting hard to make sure that there is more equity and more equality both for communities who want to be able to access a small business that provides a real apprenticeship opportunity to young people from those communities and for customers who want to come in and be able to cook real food for their families. I think that Services Australia has made a really big mistake in this decision. I think the minister needs to go back and have a look at what is the sort of bureaucracy that is making decisions about how disadvantaged people can spend the money that Australian taxpayers have given to them and why they can't spend it in a small business that is singularly focused on providing protein and good-quality food to communities. I think this is a shocking moment to discover that this is yet another example of Canberra not understanding how regional communities work, not understanding how real people operate and not understanding the quality of protein that is grown by Australian farmers and supplied through small businesses. It is a real missed opportunity for the government to support local businesses and not big supermarkets—another Canberra fail.