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2304 Appropriation (Parliament) Bill; Appropriation Bill 31 Oct 2012 particular problem in Queensland. We want Queensland to be the safest place in which to raise a child. Therefore, we set up the Carmody inquiry. I know that yesterday they were out at Ipswich. I fully anticipate that that commission of inquiry will come up with some great recommendations for the future and for the protection of children in Queensland. I was very pleased to join the Premier at Gadens legal where we announced funding of $750,000 for women’s legal services. Mr McVeigh interjected. Mr BLEIJIE: Yes, Paul Spiro is the partner there. Mr Nicholls interjected. Mr BLEIJIE: The managing partner he is, Treasurer, yes. This will really help disadvantaged women across Queensland. The $750,000 that this government has given because they were underfunded by previous Labor governments certainly will go some way towards helping them reestablish their rural phone line for rural and regional women right across Queensland. Hopefully, they can reopen their Friday session so they do not have to turn seven women away a night. We will soon establish boot camps in Queensland for those in the juvenile justice system. This will see a commitment of $2 million. This is an exciting opportunity for participants in the youth justice space. Yesterday I was pleased to host at Parliament House a second round table with youth industry leaders and some MPs from right around Queensland. We were looking at how we get these young kids back on track and get them out of our justice system and living a fulfilled life with a job and an education. We want them to turn their lives around and get out of the college of crime. Boot camps will go a long way towards achieving that. Mr Nicholls interjected. Mr BLEIJIE: I take the interjection from the Treasurer. The CMC has been the subject of debate. I was pleased to establish a reference group led by former High Court judge the Hon. Ian Callinan. I table a copy of the terms of reference for the advisory panel. Tabled paper: Crime and Misconduct Act 2001, Advisory Panel, Terms of Reference [1466]. I look forward to receiving their remarks, recommendations and advice early next year. If we look at some of the comments made by some members in the House we find the opposition leader criticised the establishment of the CMC inquiry. The CMC received $50 million of Queensland taxpayers’ money. It should be open to accountability and of the highest integrity. That is why I have set up an independent advisory panel to the Attorney-General to look at those issues. I thank and pay tribute to the member for Broadwater for her contribution in terms of the Women’s Legal Service. The member for Rockhampton talked about the number of questions asked. I sat there for five hours and the member for Rockhampton never even got to ask a question in the estimates committee. He was not allowed by the Leader of the Opposition. He never got to ask me a question. I pay tribute to the Department of Justice and Attorney-General. I pay particular tribute to the honourable Treasurer in really getting this state’s finances back on track. My department and I have been particularly pleased to be a part of the big fiscal repair task that we have ahead of us. Report adopted. Agriculture, Resources and Environment Committee Report Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Ruthenberg): The question is— That the report of the Agriculture, Resources and Environment Committee be adopted. Hon. JJ McVEIGH (Toowoomba South—LNP) (Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (8.05 pm): I thank the Agriculture, Resources and Environment Committee for their scrutiny of the budget, for their interaction during the estimates hearing and, of course, for their resulting report. I note the comments from the member for Dalrymple about staff. I must really redirect his comments to the former minister in the Labor government because given the massive state debt of $65 billion that was left by Labor there have been significant pressures and challenges that our government has had to face up to on behalf of all Queenslanders. The decision to close the Townsville vet lab, along with the Toowoomba vet lab, and centralise disease testing at the state-of-the-art Coopers Plains facility was taken on the best scientific advice available. I will state again for the benefit of the member for Dalrymple and those opposite that the decision will not put any additional risk on our animal industries. The decision to find savings at the Charters Towers Tropical Weeds Centre was made for the same reason and was made because the research programs had come to an end.
31 Oct 2012 Appropriation (Parliament) Bill; Appropriation Bill 2305 I was also interested in the fact that the member for South Brisbane issued a statement of reservation, partly because she did not even attend the estimates hearing. Her comments are hardly original. On fire ants, for example, they are wrong. The LNP government is fully meeting its commitment under the national cost-sharing agreement. This was confirmed at the Standing Committee on Primary Industries meeting just last week with other Australian ministers. Turning to Coopers Plains and the costs to bring animal testing to the main central lab, on this the member for South Brisbane, like her deputy leader, is entirely wrong. Labor had sold off the old lab at Oonoonba for residential development. It was gone. Labor had not fully funded a proposed new lab, which under their own estimates, had blown out from 13 to 17 to 21 million dollars. I have repeatedly updated the costs to accommodate additional staff at Coopers Plains on many occasions—and they will be roundly $2 million and not $10 million. Under the restructure of operations, an additional area is now available to accommodate any additional staff needed in the expanded lab testing roles. The member for South Brisbane’s comments about the recreational use fee, the RUF, funds being diverted away from recreational fishing services are wrong as well. RUF revenue has never been quarantined or structured to enhance specifically recreational fishing. The law states that the RUF fee must be paid when registering a boat. Failure to do so will result in a boat not being registered. How the government chooses to spend those funds it receives is up to the government of the day. Since introduction in 1994, RUF revenue has been provided to Fisheries Queensland. While there is no legal requirement to do so, the funds, under our government, have been and will be used to help pay for costs attributable to recreational fishing. The RUF revenue has typically represented less than 40 per cent of the total amount spent on providing services to the recreational fishing sector. Over $5 million in funding is coming directly from government in recognition of that sector. That effort will continue given the acknowledgement of recreational fishers and the enjoyment they have and the advantages to our local economy. I totally reject the member for South Brisbane’s claims that front-line services will be compromised under the Newman government. Under our restructure, critical front-line services—wild dog officers, stock inspectors and plant protection officers—have been boosted rather than the Brisbane CBD based admin, corporate services, policy and PR positions that Labor was so very fond of. The member for South Brisbane clearly takes her notes from the ramblings of the former minister, who had a few serious questions to ask. Indeed the member for Mackay asked a series of inane, repetitive questions and then finished off with him mouthing off, ‘You are a bunch of agrarian socialists.’ That is the best he could do on the day—resort to pathetic, personal, baseless abuse—very sad. We are trying to protect farmers such as pineapple growers threatened by disease from overseas under Joe Ludwig and his federal Labor mates. Putting aside the churlish comments of the member for Mackay and the member for South Brisbane, I wish to put on record my overall thanks to the committee, particularly the committee chairman, the member for Lockyer, Mr Ian Rickuss. I applaud the Treasurer on this budget that he has handed down on behalf of Queensland, and I and my department have been pleased to play our small role. Ms TRAD (South Brisbane—ALP) (8.10 pm): I rise to contribute to the Agriculture, Resources and Environment Committee estimates report. The AREC hearing highlighted the LNP’s failure to live up to its promise of being an open and accountable government. Ministers continually dodged questions and the hearing was plagued by unnecessary and time-wasting interruptions from government members during opposition questioning. Government members were also allowed to submit questions on notice to the environment and mines ministers a day late. It is totally unacceptable that deadlines for parliamentary committee proceedings differ according to members’ political persuasions and it diminishes the committees process and the parliament as a whole. I have written to the Speaker on this issue and I look forward to her response. What we have here is a government that has relegated the environment to the bottom of the pile. The Agriculture, Resources and Environment Committee hearing revealed that we do not have an environment minister who is in charge of protecting the Great Barrier Reef. We do not have a mines minister in Queensland who is in charge of water in mines. We do not have a natural resources minister who can actually see the connection between the clearing of native vegetation and the loss of koala habitat. This is a government intent on ‘aggressively’ and ‘ruthlessly’ slashing regulations that have been put in place to balance industry development with environmental protection with no regard for community or our environment. Why? Because they claim the Labor government’s onerous regulations were strangling the resources industry. Well let’s interrogate this rhetoric just a little bit, shall we? The number of people employed by the resources industry increased from 27,380 in 2005 to 48,714 by 2011. By my calculation this is just under an 80 per cent increase in just five years. Between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2011 investment in the industry increased by $38.5 billion. The source of those figures is the ABS. A record $1.127 billion was spent on exploration activity in 2011—an increase of almost 320 per cent on the $353.9 million spent in 2005. Again, the source is the ABS. These are hardly indices of an industry that is crippled by regulation.
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