CQ Today – Northern Australia in focus

Just 100 years after the First Fleet, the people who settled our country managed to build and deliver the richest nation on earth in per person terms. As Tony Abbott describes in his recent excellent history of Australia, we did that thanks to the use of our resources, especially gold at that time. The legacy we inherited is to live in the ‘lucky country’. But every generation must work hard to keep making our own luck. You make luck by being smart. And a smart practice is to invest in parts of your country that already makes money. Northern Australia (which Gladstone is part of) makes up just five per cent of our population but produces more 10 per cent of our wealth and accounts for over half of our exports. That’s why a decade ago the Liberal and Nationals Government established a ‘Developing Northern Australia’ agenda. That agenda built on the work of former LNP Members of Parliament Ian Macdonald and Warren Entsch. Part of that agenda was to establish a Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), effectively a ‘bank’ for the North to help develop major projects that would create jobs and opportunity. This week the NAIF was extended for another 10 years through legislation in the Parliament. A decade ago, I had introduced the legislation to establish the NAIF and it was an honour to speak in favour of its continuation. The LNP supported an amendment that would have made the NAIF permanent, as had been recommended by a recent review of the NAIF, but the Labor Government voted that down. In any case, the NAIF is kicking goals. The NAIF has financed the reopening of the Mount Morgan gold mine, which was once the biggest gold mine in the world at one stage. The reopening of that mine creates jobs in Mount Morgan and it also removes a massive environmental risk for Rockhampton and Yeppoon. The new mine is finally treating the product in the Tailings Dam and that will remove the risk that a spill of these dams could put toxic material into our drinking water. There are now even plans for the gold from that mine to be used in the 2032 Olympic Games gold medals. NAIF has helped fund the Olive Downs coal mine, a new meatworks at Moranbah and upgrades at the Cairns and Townsville airports, helping to unlock tourism opportunities. The Humpty Doo Barramundi farm has also expanded thanks to the NAIF. Next year a new urea plant in Karratha will open thanks to finance from the NAIF. Since 2002 Australia has lost its ability to make urea – the most important fertiliser used in farming. On the eve of the Iran conflict we were importing two thirds of urea needs from the Middle East. This left us absurdly vulnerable to other countries for our food security. But thanks to the vision of our Developing the North Agenda, we will be able to produce a good portion of our fertiliser needs again. Despite naysayers at the time, the NAIF has been a great success. We can still build things as a nation. We must maintain a positive, optimistic and pioneering vision for our nation if we are to maintain our luck. There is no reason that Australia cannot continue to be the lucky country. We just need to get back to making our own luck again. We need to use our resources. We need to focus on development. And, we need to stop the self-enforced locking up of our country that just makes us poorer. The biggest opportunities remain in our north and the LNP will keep our guiding star pointing there.