Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

Thank you. Of course, that's very intimately tied with the bill I'm speaking on, Deputy President—the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Amendment Bill 2026—so thank you very much for your indulgence.

I congratulate the three panellists who undertook the 2024 Independent review of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Act 2016, and I'll put their names on the record. They are the Hon. Warren Snowdon, who of course represented the Northern Territory for many years in this place; Professor Peter Yu; and Dr Lisa Caffery. I put on the record my thanks to them, in terms of the independent review which they undertook. I also put on the record my thanks to the secretariat, who supported them in that process, and also members of the department. I thought it was a quality review, and, as someone who's now speaking in relation to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and its future, I found it very informative and very helpful in terms of assessing the success—and it has been a success—of the NAIF.

I also want to associate myself with the remarks of my good friend Senator Dean Smith. He made a point, which is absolutely true: when north Australia prospers, Australia prospers. It's a fact. There's no doubt about it. I note I have fellow senators from Queensland in the chamber and I'm sure they would agree that, when northern Australia prospers, Australia prospers. So we should do everything we possibly can to unleash the potential of northern Australia, and I think NAIF does exactly that.

I note that, in the course of the review, the reviewers engaged in 85 targeted meetings, had six site visits and met with 83 different entities, so they actually undertook quite a considerable workload in terms of constructing the recommendations and observations that were made in the review. There were a few thoughts in the review that I thought resonated with me. The first was a question that one of the stakeholders posed in relation to the role of NAIF in terms of providing bridging finance to potential projects. That the difference between a project getting up and running or not getting up and running; NAIF actually bridges that gap and makes a difference. The question posed was: if not the NAIF, then who? That's a really important question. If we didn't have the NAIF, who would be performing that function in terms of bridging the gap and providing that additional loan on concessional terms, after having undergone due diligence and done all the things we expect before the taxpayers' money is advanced in this respect? If not the NAIF, then who? The answer to that question is nobody, because there's no institution of government that was performing this role before the creation of the NAIF. And I want to place on record my appreciation for the work that Senator Canavan did when he was Minister for Northern Australia, including in relation to the NAIF.

The second point that resonated with me—and which underpins the amendment that was moved by my colleague Senator Susan McDonald from Queensland—is that the most significant recommendation contained in this review document, recommendation 1, was:

The government remove the existing time limit to allow the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) to make Investment Decisions in perpetuity.

The review taskforce recognise the importance of NAIF, but they also recognise the limitations involved in NAIF only being established to work to a five-year timeline, or, as is proposed under this amending legislation, a 10-year timeframe. The reviewers were quite adamant—it was their No. 1 recommendation; it was their most significant recommendation—that NAIF should be enabled, or empowered, to operate in perpetuity. From my perspective, that makes a lot of sense, because I also think we should have a situation—and the reviewers touched upon this as well—where the NAIF actually recycles loan funds. That is the term used. Like a bank, the NAIF lends to a project. It gets repaid in relation to those concessional loans that have been made, and then that money comes back to NAIF to be reinvested in the next project and so on and so forth. I think there's a lot of merit in that, as opposed to, when the repayment of a loan is made, it goes into consolidated revenue and, maybe, the NAIF gets something in the future. I think that would be a way to empower the NAIF, and it's one of the recommendations that was made by the independent reviewers, so I do compliment them in relation to that.

We're talking about the reason we have the NAIF. Some of the facts that were put on the record in the review were quite startling. Northern Australia represents half of Australia's landmass. It's home to 1.5 million people—5.1 per cent of Australia's population—but it's an economic powerhouse in terms of producing GDP per capita in that region. Northern Australia supports more than 100,000 businesses that employ more than 639,000 Australians. The GRP, Gross Regional Product, is much greater than the per capita rates for the rest of the country. Northern Australia is a powerhouse, and the NAIF is helping it to unleash that power.

The review also touches upon the challenges faced by businesses, entrepreneurs and communities that are trying to get projects off the ground in northern Australia. I'm sure Senator Green, from my home state of Queensland, would be well aware of that, based, as she is, in Cairns. These include prolonged underinvestment in critical infrastructure, the high costs of delivery, the limited available workforce and extreme seasons. The costs of doing business are higher in northern Australia, and that's one of the reasons why we need the NAIF.

The NAIF has invested $4.4 billion to support 32 projects so far. But those projects, and that $4.4 billion, have led to $38.2 billion in public benefit. Just think about that: eight times the public benefit for that investment of $4.4 billion through largely concessional loans that will be repaid to the NAIF. So it makes a lot of sense. Due to the NAIF, 19,500 jobs have been created across northern Australia, and that includes jobs for 1,200 First Nations people who, of course, represent a greater percentage of the population in northern Australia than in the rest of Australia.

I'll give you one example of a transformative project that is being supported by NAIF in my home state of Queensland. I come from the mining industry, so I'm passionate about the mining industry. I'm also passionate about undertaking projects which revisit old mines which have been left, including tailings, which is the waste from the mining processes, rehabilitating those old mine sites and obtaining economic benefit in the process. A project which the NAIF is supporting with a $66 million concessional loan is the Mount Morgan Tailings Reprocessing and Rehabilitation Project, which is being undertaken by Heritage Minerals. Just think about this. Mount Morgan was one of the most outstanding gold mines in the whole world. If you go to Rockhampton, you see the beautiful architecture in Rockhampton. A lot of it was the result of wealth that was generated from the Mount Morgan mine. Aa hugely successful mine; hundreds of tonnes of gold were produced from the Mount Morgan mine.

With this concessional loan of up to $66 million, Heritage Minerals—and I congratulate the team at Heritage Minerals for undertaking this project—will go in and they'll treat the tailings, the waste from previous mining operations from, say, 100 years ago. They'll extract the gold that's still there in that waste, because processing techniques have improved. Through that extraction, they'll generate a profit for themselves and their shareholders, but they'll also generate a public benefit of $849 million for the people in the Rockhampton region. So they'll remediate an old mine site, obtain economic benefit out of what was previously considered waste through the best technology available, and generate that community benefit for regional Queensland. It is a win-win-win. A win-win for the community, a win for the environment and a win for the shareholders of that company. That is exactly what we're looking for.

I'm delighted to speak in support of the NAIF. I'm delighted to speak on behalf of the people of Queensland to support the amendment which was proposed by my good friend Senator McDonald. I know that there are quite a few Queensland senators in the chamber, which is always good to see—we've nearly got a majority in the chamber at the moment. I'm delighted to support the amendment that the NAIF be in perpetuity. As I started this speech, I'll end it: when northern Australia prospers, Australia prospers.