Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Minister for Northern Australia, Ms King, I table a ministerial statement on developing northern Australia. I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of Minister King's ministerial statement on northern Australia. Northern Australia is the top half of the country: 51 per cent of the land mass, home to 1.3 million people. As we know, it produces much of the country's wealth and is capable of producing so much more. But under this government northern Australia is like the submerged part of an iceberg—propping up everything but mostly keeping out of sight.

We have mining, agriculture, tourism and defence. We have so much opportunity, so much potential. We just need water, infrastructure, insurance relief, population and—above all—belief. We need belief, from those people in a position to pull the levers, to truly grow northern Australia. As part of the coalition government in the last term we recognised that, the economic development and prosperity of northern Australia. It is truly our heart and lungs, and it is this part of the country that is so important to us. Yet Labor is treating it like an appendix.

Recently we've had the Prime Minister, at the G20, talking about food security and Australia's role in feeding a good part of the world. That is a terrific aspiration. We know that Queensland's farmers and graziers and our very efficient supply chains are all delivering a fantastic high-quality product. But how could we do more? How could we provide more food security to the rest of the world? It is from that place called northern Australia.

I was devastated to see that so many water projects that we had worked so hard to get into the north were scrapped in the budget. We had a proposal for an irrigation scheme at Richmond. We had both irrigation schemes at Hughenden. The Charters Towers Big Rocks Weir is still going ahead—it's 10,000 megalitres. The big project at Hells Gate Dam has gone. The Bowen Pipeline has gone. Urannah Dam has gone. All these projects were going to build the potential to grow more food in northern Australia. This has been drawn in stark relief when half of the country, some of the most productive agricultural regions of the nation, are having a natural disaster with these current floods. Now more than ever we need to invest in the water infrastructure and road infrastructure that had been proposed by the coalition to continue building food security.

This is important not just to get food around this country but also to grow additional food to be able to provide to our near neighbours. It was identified at a UN peace conference recently and in other places that food security is a critical element of the world's challenges. Northern Australia is a place of great rich soils, big river systems, great climate, technical know-how and proximity to markets. These are all good reasons why we should be continuing to invest in the north.

We were growing this food bowl. As I said, $1.7 billion was locked in to expand irrigation for agriculture in Central and North Queensland. Providing irrigation in these parts of the country would have provided additional horticulture places, particularly during the winter months. Already Bowen and its surrounds are providing 70 per cent of the nation's tomatoes and capsicums. What more could we do with a secure water supply?

In the north we also have mineral fertilisers—huge deposits of phosphate. It is so important that we continue to access the minerals that are critical to fertiliser production and ensure Australia's own supply chains.

I want to acknowledge the Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia. What an energetic and terrific organisation that is. It has conducted trials of tropical crops, high demand spices, aquaculture and increased beef production—to name but a few. It is terrifically important that we continue to support the diversification of crops and bring more people into that region.

Forty per cent of northern Australia is owned or managed by Indigenous people, who make up about 15 per cent of the population. Not every Indigenous person wants to be a ranger. The Northern Australia Indigenous Reference Group is chaired by the energetic Colin Saltmere, who is looking at spinifex production for a range of potential projects. Look at some of the great mining projects in northern Australia. These are all meaningful, purposeful jobs and careers that should be available to Indigenous young people, as well as the rest of the population living in northern Australia. The removal of infrastructure investment is incredibly concerning to those communities which are left without meaningful, purposeful jobs and investment.

De-risking investment is incredibly important. Those were the projects that we were doing to encourage trillions of dollars of superannuation funds to invest in northern Australia rather than overseas. We have incredible resources—gas, coal, bauxite, rare earths, vanadium and uranium. As the world moves to batteries, northern Australia can be an exporter of choice of critical minerals. Better still, we can build the factories in northern Australia ourselves. Instead of exporting commodities, we can value-add right here in this nation.

But are our roads and rail to standard? Are our ports big enough to handle increased freight? Are our bridges weight rated to allow for not only exports but also imports? At the moment there are terrific projects going ahead for renewable energy, and yet we cannot get them off the port at Gladstone and into the places where they're to be built because the bridges are not weight rated to a level that they can be moved through there. The coalition has been really focused on serious planning to invest these kinds of infrastructure dollars. The centrepiece of the plan was the Regions of Growth initiative, which linked state and territory governments, local governments as well as the federal government and the Indigenous references group to really plan where this transformative infrastructure was most required. The first three master plans that were identified—Mount Isa to Townsville, Beetaloo to Katherine and Darwin and Broome to Kununurra to Darwin—were all incredibly important regions of growth that the master planning process had identified. It asked: what is the most important infrastructure development to happen in a particular place?

The priorities included: Indigenous economic growth; building capacity and supporting businesses and entrepreneurs; energy affordability and supporting infrastructure; supply chain infrastructure of roads and rail, airports, storage and logistics; communications in blackspots and increased bandwidth; water infrastructure, which I've already spoken about, to support agriculture and industry development; affordable insurance to support households and businesses; critical mineral development to value add with diversification; of course, tourism recovery, which is bouncing back so strongly despite COVID; workforce training and education to address the critical skills shortage and the short supply of labour right across the country; and important social services focusing on housing, health and aged care.

I am proud of our record in government. We started the focus on northern Australia, and I encourage Minister King to continue holding northern Australia in similar regard. I want to thank all the MPs who have been involved in northern Australia over recent years: former ministers Keith Pitt, Barnaby Joyce, Senator Matt Canavan and Josh Frydenberg and former assistant minister Michelle Landry. I also acknowledge all of the northern Australia mayors, the businesses, the miners, the farmers, the fishermen, the risk-takers, the battlers and the visionaries who are proud to call northern Australia home because I too am proud to call northern Australia home. It is my goal to ensure our government pulls every lever, implements every good idea to ensure that you and your children's children have a long and prosperous future. I say to you that northern Australia is more than just a place on a map. It's Australia's king of regions, and the coalition will continue to ensure it is treated as such.

Question agreed to.