Mr LITTLEPROUD (Maranoa—Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management) (15:27): I will not be lectured to by the Labor Party, who, in October last year, voted against the Future Drought Fund, in the lowest political act I have ever seen in this place, politicising the misery of Australian farmers. It took a change of leadership for the Australian Labor Party to support the Future Drought Fund. It is absolutely disgraceful that you would politicise the misery of Australian farmers. You have been hiding under a rock for six years, and it took a political near-death experience for you, in the seat of Hunter, where you lost your values—you gave up your values, your principles, not only for agriculture but also for mining. You went into hiding from the mining industry as well. The good people of Hunter found you on 18 May and they are going to come for you again. Now that you have had this near-death experience, you've had this epiphany that you're going to come back and you've got these morals and principles and you're going to take the Labor Party to where they need to be. Well you're too late, mate! Let me make it clear— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Hogan ): I will make the point to the minister that he should address the chair. Mr LITTLEPROUD: I take that point, Mr Deputy Speaker, but I am making a very forceful point and one that needs to be made. Those opposite voted in this place against the Future Drought Fund—against it! And then they come in here and sanctimoniously say they are the saviour. Well blow me down! You are kidding me, my friend. That is an absolute disgrace. That is a fund that will give $100 million a year to the bush to help them prepare resilience for future droughts—$100 million a year. Let me make it clear: it will go to the agricultural sector to build resilience and the communities that deserve it. But you voted against it. It took a change of leadership for somebody in the Labor Party to finally grow a spine—because you'd been hiding under a rock, Member for Hunter. That takes our commitment to drought to $7 billion—$2 billion in the here and now—and not just in terms of farm household assistance but also— An opposition member interjecting— Mr LITTLEPROUD: You want to talk about loans? This is another example of those opposite—the Regional Investment Corporation gives concessional loans. Let me tell you what a concessional loan will do. It can save a farmer $67,000 in interest compared to the commercial rate—and those opposite voted against it. And I rocked his world. It was my first piece of legislation as agriculture minister. The member for Hunter was so smug; he felt that it was never going to get through the Senate, and we got it through. Now we are delivering concessional loans. We are going to deliver restocking and replanting loans of $200,000 to allow farmers to get back up on their feet, because it will rain, and they will need that support. But again those opposite decided to play politics rather than delivering. I'm proud to say that we continue to work on the Drought Communities Program, which gives a million dollars to councils, because it's not just farmers that drought hurts; it's also small communities. And I live and breathe it. My whole electorate, 43 per cent of Queensland, is drought stricken, so don't come in here and lecture me. The reality is that I see these people. I know them by face and by name, and I see the reaction that we are getting from the response that we've been able to put out through the Drought Communities Program, a million dollars that goes to help tradies, that builds projects, procures local materials, uses local tradespeople and keeps money flowing through towns. It's dealing with pests and weeds. It's building exclusion fencing. It's bringing sheep back into the communities. We understand what drives the economy in these local towns. We've seen lambing rates go from five per cent to 87 per cent. And you know what that does? It brings back shearers, and shearers invariably leave more money in these regional communities than anyone else. They do such a good job in terms of supporting the pub, the cafes and the servos. They keep the economy going. We've invested even in my electorate. There's the $34 million we've put into tourism projects, the Stockman's Hall of Fame and the Qantas Founders Outback Museum, to diversify our economic base. You ask how those communities would be going if we hadn't made those investments. You ask them how it would be going if we were relying only on primary production to support those small towns. We're continuing to make sure that we're putting investment into infrastructure around our communities, whether it be the $3.5 billion for Roads of Strategic Importance, or the beef roads in the north that are going to connect our product, which we've been able to deliver around the world with our trade agreements with China, South Korea and Japan. There is the TPP-11, of which those opposite said, 'No, no, no, forget about the TPP-11; it'll never happen.' Well it did, with our leadership. And now we've got Hong Kong, Peru and Indonesia. As to all the sanctimony of those opposite, I say, 'Will you ratify Indonesia?' This is a unique opportunity for our nation to secure a trade agreement with our nearest neighbour, the hundreds of millions of people up there that can take our product. But the Labor Party has sold out on that. They sanctimoniously come in here and say, 'We're not doing anything.' Let me tell you: we're continuing to work to provide localised climate guides for our small farmers to be able to understand the science and know what weather is coming in. They give our farmers the tools to be able to prepare and plan and make informed decisions about their agricultural production system. We're also committing our money, boots and all, into dams: $1.3 billion. And we are having trouble getting the states to come with us, and those opposite. Let me give them a lesson about Federation, which is convenient only when it helps them. But let me tell you this: the reality is that it has never ever been the responsibility of the federal government to build a dam or water infrastructure in the states; it has always been the states'. Our forefathers gave them the responsibility for and ownership of resources. But let's be honest: they've done three parts of bugger-all! Since 2003 only 20 dams have been built, and 16 of those have been in Tasmania. Now, even in urban Australia, we will see by 2030 a 37 per cent reduction of storage per person, which actually goes to the essence of anyone sustaining a lifestyle in an urban area as well, because the states have done nothing. So we showed leadership. We created the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund, with $800 million, then topped it up to $1.3 billion. We created the Regional Investment Corporation to put money out the door, $3.3 billion, which those opposite, again, decided to vote against, to not support. And only last weekend the Deputy Prime Minister decided the leadership needed to go further. The states were not doing enough. So we are going to lead, with a national water grid. We will use the science to determine where the water infrastructure needs to be and how you link that in, to create a sustainable environment for those people in regional and rural Australia. That's leadership. That's what happens if you want to put your shoulder to the wheel. Unfortunately, in our home state of Queensland, where we were talking about the Emu Swamp Dam, all we asked for was a measly $13 million from the state government. The Queensland state government only had to come up with $13 million, the federal government $42 million. The farmers themselves put up more than the state government. We had to bring them in, kicking and screaming, to kick their tin and put their money on the table. On the Rookwood Weir, we find out today that the Queensland government has somehow run out of money again, so they're cutting back the capacity of Rookwood from 76,000 to 54,000 megalitres. But they don't seem to cut the Cross River Rail. The cement costs the same in Brisbane as it does in Rockhampton, I would have thought. But, no, those in the south-east of Queensland from the Labor Party have decided that it's more important to have a Cross River Rail than to give the people of Rockhampton an opportunity to have an agricultural sector. Fourteen thousand jobs, over a billion dollars worth of agricultural production, but the state Labor government decided they didn't want to do it—'It will became too costly, so we're going to cut it down.' Why don't they cut down Cross River Rail? Why don't they do that? No, they're more interested in South East Queensland; they're more interested in Brisbane. That's the problem. You might want to put your head down, because that is the story of the Australian Labor Party. They don't understand regional Australia and they don't care. This is the problem we've got. Let me talk about decentralisation. I'm proud to say that, regarding the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, I am moving over 100 jobs out of Canberra to up and down the Murray-Darling. Twenty-five of those jobs are going to Goondiwindi—a small town of about 6,000 people. We're bringing 25 new families to Goondiwindi. That's an enormous opportunity. We're doing the same in Mildura and Griffith. Mr Fitzgibbon: How's the APVMA going? Mr LITTLEPROUD: Let me tell you about the APVMA. There are over 100 at the APVMA. Let me tell you: I met a senior scientist who said she only came back to Australia from Geneva because it was in Armidale, not Canberra. Lo and behold, this metropolitan bastion of Canberra can be beaten. This town is the perfect example of decentralisation. Eventually, we will continue to roll out the decentralisation program that we started. That's how we deliver to regional Australia. We understand that, if we have faith and confidence in it, business will follow. But the Australian Labor Party don't have confidence in regional and rural Australia. They talk it down and then they politicise it when it's their opportunity to politicise their misery. We will support regional and rural Australia, and I can tell you that the future of regional Australia is a lot brighter because we're in government and not you.