Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) | Hansard source

It's a great privilege and honour to support the extension of the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility, a proud achievement of the former Liberal and National government. We welcome and we will support the government continuing this important organisation's going on. It's a particular personal privilege to be here to support this because it was 10 years ago, almost to the date, that I as minister for northern Australia helped introduce and see through the establishment of this organisation.

This is now the second five-year extension of the NAIF before us this evening. Ten years ago, we established it for five years. We thought we'd give it a trial. It was a key part of the government's developing Northern Australia Agenda. There were a lot of naysayers at the time. I remember a lot of critiques of the NAIF in its early days. Like when setting up any organisation, there was a lot to do, and I want to thank all of those who played a role then in putting that together. Its success has been proven by its longevity, its continuation, the almost no criticism or almost silence of criticism—there was a little bit there from a former speaker, which I might come to if I have time—the no controversy and no scandals. It's just an organisation getting on with its job. I congratulate all of the NAIF staff, everyone in the department of industry, as it was when I was around—I think it may have been moved to the Department of Regional Development today—and to all of the department officials who had a big role in getting this ready. It came together pretty quickly in only about six months or so for development of the legislation. As I say, that legislation has largely stood the test of time. There have been a few tweaks over the years, but overall the organisation is pretty much what was established a decade ago.

The government did commission another review of the NAIF before deciding to extend this organisation for another five years. That review did come back and had a glowing report about the effectiveness of the NAIF, the support for the NAIF from the people of the north and what it's doing to help develop our great country. The review, interestingly, was so glowing that it recommended that the NAIF should be made permanent. As I said, we established this for five years—understandable for a new organisation with some, as I said, criticism. I thought, 'We'll give it five years and see how it goes.' It could make loans well beyond five years, but its actual inception, its ability to originate loans, was restricted to its first five years. But it was a success, and it was extended during the COVID pandemic. Now, again, this review says not only that we should extend it; the review recommends it should be made permanent.

Unfortunately—at least it's unfortunate from our side—the government has not accepted that recommendation. They have brought forward legislation that will extend the NAIF for a further 10 years. That's better than five, but it's just 10 years. I believe my colleague Senator Susan McDonald, the now shadow minister for Northern Australia—an able and very appropriate shadow minister for northern Australia, herself coming from Townsville and having grown up around the Gulf—has flagged that we'd like to accept that recommendation.

So we will be moving an amendment to make the NAIF permanent. If we're going to go for 10 years, we may as well make it permanent. Obviously, any future parliament can come back and look at the organisation any time it likes. But, given that the loans that NAIF makes are often 20 to 30 years—or it can make them up to 30 years; it can make them up to as long as the government bond maturity, but often the loans are more between 10 and 20 years, I should say—they're quite long. It makes sense for the organisation to be able to see through the provision of these loans.

As I said, it has been very successful. It has funded a range of projects right across the component parts of the three states, in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia. I might steal some of my colleague Senator Smith's thunder. He's going to go next, or sometime next, when he comes to the chamber. I'll start with his great state of Western Australia, particularly the north of that state, which contributes so much.

In fact, before I get to the specifics, I should just outline how much the north does contribute to our nation. It's worth repeating that over half our nation's exports originate from ports in northern Australia, principally our iron ore, coal, gas, beef, bauxite and lots of other projects, like aluminium.