RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS - Queensland Parliament ...

31 Oct 2012 Questions Without Notice 2263
Uranium Mining
Mr MALONE: My question without notice is to the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines. Can
the minister inform the House how uranium mining in this state will benefit all Queenslanders?
Mr CRIPPS: I thank the member for Mirani for his question. The Newman government has put the
interests of Queenslanders first with its decision to recommence uranium mining in Queensland. The
six-member implementation committee, announced by the Premier this week, marks the beginning of an
orderly and considered process to ensure that uranium mining in Queensland resumes under world’s
best practice environmental and safety standards.
The LNP is committed to delivering a robust resources sector that delivers jobs and economic
prosperity, particularly in regional and rural areas of Queensland. I have confidence in committee chair
Councillor Paul Bell, a man with years of experience in ensuring that the development of the resources
sector in the Bowen Basin was responsive to the needs of local communities. With the assistance of his
fellow committee members—respected Indigenous leader and Uranium Association director, Warren
Mundine; Noeline Ikin from the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group; the Queensland
Resources Council’s Frances Hayter; Queensland’s Chief Scientist, Dr Geoff Garrett; and Dan Hunt, the
director-general of the Department of Natural Resources and Mines—Councillor Bell will be steering a
well-grounded, balanced panel with regional Queensland’s best interests at heart.
Predictably, the green movement is already bleating in the media about the implementation
committee and about the greens not having a seat on the panel. I would like to advise all members of
the House that the Queensland Conservation Council was offered a place on the implementation
committee and it refused. The hysterical scaremongering from the extreme greens and the Queensland
Labor Party is just lazy political rhetoric. They should stop their unconstructive protesting and instead be
part of the discussion on the sustainable development of an industry that will benefit all Queenslanders.
There is little doubt that uranium mining will be a valuable part of a diversified resources sector
across Queensland. North Queensland in particular stands to benefit from some of the more prospective
resources located in the north-west minerals province. Uranium mines in this area have the potential to
provide employment opportunities and economic opportunities that communities in North Queensland
deserve, particularly Indigenous communities. Uranium deposits in the north-west minerals province
have special strategic importance for Indigenous communities, given that some mines in that area are
destined to close in the next few years. For example, almost 25 per cent of workers at Century Zinc’s
mine are Indigenous employees drawn from the local community in Doomadgee. While some of those
workers will be deployed to other MMG mines, there is already optimism that potential uranium mines in
the region could provide alternatives in the future. We should support the development of this industry.
(Time expired)
QBuild
Mr BYRNE: My question is to the Minister for Housing and Public Works. I refer to the minister’s
decision to sack almost 900 government workers—350 from Project Services and more than 500 in
QBuild in Rockhampton, Gladstone, Townsville, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Toowoomba, the Gold
Coast, the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. Will the minister advise if any assessment or modelling was
conducted or considered regarding the economic impact in regional Queensland before he approved
these mass sackings?
Dr FLEGG: I thank the member for the question and for this opportunity to discuss the future role
of QBuild. I think we should understand right from the beginning that even under the previous
government 70 per cent of QBuild’s work was contracted out to the private sector. The honourable
member will be well and truly aware—it has been long discussed on this side of the chamber—that we
are not going to walk up to a school P&C and tell them, ‘You cannot get the best value. You have to use
this particular government builder. If you can get a broken window fixed for $200, I am sorry; you will
have to get somebody to fix it for $800 because we have taken that choice away from you.’ We live in a
contestable world. In that world, that business will not be tied to QBuild any longer.
QBuild will have a valuable role going forward, and I am determined to make sure that it does. But
part of that is to make the organisation efficient—make it able to survive in a contestable world—and at
the same time allow agencies like our schools and our P&Cs to get the best value they can for very
scarce and very important taxpayers’ dollars.
We have merged QBuild and Project Services. We have had a situation around the state where
you can have a car park and on one side is an office building occupied by QBuild and on the other side
is an office building occupied by Project Services. There has been an enormous amount of duplication.
How many times have we stood in this chamber and talked about asbestos in government buildings? I
have been talking about it on a regular basis ever since I came into this place years ago. When I
became the minister responsible for QBuild I found that it does not hold an A-class asbestos licence. So
all work requiring an A-class asbestos licence had to be contracted out because QBuild did not hold the
appropriate licence to do it. This is what we have inherited from the previous government.