Mr McCORMACK (Riverina—Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development and Leader of The Nationals) (14:09): I thank the member for Dawson for his question. He knows that there are farmers out there who are suffering and who are experiencing the worst drought on record. I encourage every member of the House to visit a drought affected community to see firsthand the impact that it is having. Next month the government will launch the National Water Grid Authority. Drought is something that we should not ever play politics on. The authority is designed to avoid just that. It's a specialist body which will use the world's best minds, but, importantly, with local stakeholder engagement. That's significant, because, when you've got people like we have in the Granite Belt area of Queensland who are willing to back themselves, are willing to take that risk and are willing to invest $24.3 million into a water storage infrastructure project—that is, the Emu Swamp Dam Project—then both state and federal level governments should follow up that support and that investment. And that's what we're doing. We've put $42 million on the table for that, and another $5 million for enabling roads. We're pleased the Queensland government has come up with the tune of $18 million as well. This will provide a 12,000 megalitre rock-fill clay-core dam on the Severn River near Stanthorpe, in the member for Maranoa's electorate. It will include three pumped stations and a 117 kilometre pumped pipeline distribution network. It's going to inject almost $70 million into the local economy, but, most importantly, it will provide security and certainty for our farmers. We want to see shovels in the ground very soon on that project. I know that the National Water Grid Authority is going to make such a difference, but we're already making a big difference in the area of water security. The Myalup-Wellington project in Western Australia is backed by this government. We're already building—and it will be completed this year, all things being equal—the Scottsdale Irrigation Scheme in Tasmania and the South West Loddon Pipeline Project in Victoria. I talked the other day about the Mitiamo pipeline in Victoria as well. There's the Northern Adelaide Irrigation Scheme in South Australia, where Penfield grower Daniel Hoffman told me that this investment means that some farms will save up to $60,000 per year. That's just on water. He said: 'Previously we could never afford to water into the summer. This means we can grow produce all year round.' This is making such a difference for rural and regional Australia, particularly communities affected by drought. The Liberals and Nationals are delivering stability and certainty when it comes to the eight million Australians who live in rural and regional Australia and who back themselves every day. We're backing them as well. We're backing them through this drought and we're backing them for a better future, and we're doing it each and every day. It's good policy.