Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I do want to keep it brief, and I am trying to be as disciplined as I can, but there are just a couple of points for the record. I note your long-standing interest in your own country, to which you often refer—as we all do. The road between Townsville and Cairns is in a very bad state. I wonder if you can, perhaps, get in touch with your Labor counterparts in Queensland and ask them about the $368 million of taxpayers’ money that has been supplied to them specifically for the flood immunity work and the repair of the work there, because it has been there since 2005-06. That might provide the answer about why some work has not happened.

In terms of the ‘jobs for mates’, I do appreciate it, and I am sure that the work by the Public Service makes fantastic reading, but again I am not sure if you could advise me—perhaps it could be put on notice—whether or not, in fact, the appointment of Steve Bracks to the car industry inquiry was the subject of that particular forensic process.