Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Roads and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to bring the House’s attention to the fact that last week I, along with 10 colleagues, visited, among other places, the Kununurra region of Western Australia. I made them aware of the wonderful resources there of both arable land and Lake Argyle water. There is no reason why Ord stage 2 should not go ahead. We have for too many years under the previous Western Australian government regime neglected Ord stage 2. With the drying of the Murray-Darling system we need to have an alternative area for irrigated agriculture in Australia. We have the potential in Kununurra to feed Australia. We have the potential in Kununurra to contribute to a solution to the world food crisis and the shortage of food. We are being told internationally how food prices are increasing because there is insufficient input of grains and staples into the market because of the production of biofuels et cetera. In the Kununurra region, and across the border into the Northern Territory, there is country there that could solve these problems, but it was ignored in the past because of various aspects within the Western Australian government. I trust that is going to change. It may need some assistance from the federal government, but the first hurdle to overcome is for federal members and senators to be aware that the solution lies in the Kununurra area, where there is both the expertise, the area and the resources to do the job.

We have been trialling GM cotton, for instance, in the region for some 10 years now, even though the Western Australian government has put a moratorium on the use of GM plants et cetera. That moratorium will now be lifted and we will have the potential, at least, to get on with the job of developing the Ord area. We will now be able to engage corporate agriculture because this hurdle will be removed. We need to do more but, more importantly, the federal government needs to contemplate having an involvement. The Snowy Mountains scheme and the construction of Ord stage 1 were two very significant engineering feats carried out in this country with federal funds. We need to create a further stage, a further national icon in Ord stage 2 that will see solutions to the drying of the Murray-Darling region. The area is there, the water resource is there and the skill is there. We need to embrace this situation by developing an attitude whereby the federal government will contribute some funding towards national icons for the benefit of all Australians into the future.