GRIEVANCE DEBATE

Mr THOMPSON (Herbert) (13:18): Thousands of people who call Townsville home are about to have their lives thrown into turmoil with the impending closure of the Glencore copper refinery. Yes, the economy in Townsville will be hurt. Most importantly, thousands of people will lose their jobs, have their lives turned upside down and find it hard to support their families, put food on the table, pay rent, pay mortgages, pay insurances, pay school bills and pay for health care.

This is entirely preventable. For the last several months, the people of North Queensland have been pleading with, begging and lobbying the Prime Minister to invest in, help and support the Glencore copper refinery. This has fallen on deaf ears.

Thousands of people's jobs are now on the brink of disappearing. Imagine if Townsville were treated like the Tasmanian smelter; we would have the support. But the difference between North Queensland and Tasmania is that, when the federal government decided to support the smelter down south, they were in the midst of an election.

The Prime Minister is happy to buy votes for his Labor mates in Tasmania but not happy to support the people of North Queensland. There's no election there. Even last night, the coalition put forward a proposal to set up a committee to look at the health and the future of our refineries.

This was voted down and not supported by the Labor Party and by the Labor senators. So it's a 'future made in Australia', but just not today. The people of Glencore—the people that need the certainty of their future today—are watching parliament, watching the Prime Minister and seeing no support there.

This is not good enough. We have a prime minister who's happy to pick a fight with anyone that asks him a question but isn't ready to pick up responsibility when it comes to supporting our refineries in North Queensland. We know there needs to be a committee and an investigation set up to make sure that the long-term future is sustainable for these refineries, but the immediate help needs to happen now.

I'm urging the Prime Minister to not forget about the north; not forget about our refineries; not forget about a 'future made in Australia', like the bumper sticker says; and support those that mine our minerals and keep this country moving. I'm very fortunate to live in the best electorate in the country, the electorate of Herbert, which takes in nearly all of the City of Townsville.

We're a large garrison city. We have a university hospital. We have a large port.

But one of the things we struggle with is insurance. Townsville is the largest city the furthest away from a capital city, so we have unique challenges, and one of those challenges is the ever-increasing price of insurance. For some people, it has doubled; for others, it has quadrupled.

Some people have been given a quote of an extra $30,000 a year to get insurance. This parliament passed the reinsurance pool. The reinsurance pool was to underwrite the insurers to pass on the savings for those that live in rural, remote and regional towns that are most affected when it comes to the skyrocketing prices of insurance.

We haven't seen these savings passed on to the consumer. So I wrote to the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation, the ARPC, and I asked them to come to Townsville, because, like most of these big bodies, they don't live in the regions they're supposed to represent; they live in the capitals. I want to get them out of Canberra, out of Sydney and into the regional areas so they can hear firsthand from the people that are doing it tough.

Whilst the ACCC monitors the savings that should be passed on, we need the reinsurance pool to hold the insurers' feet to the fire and make sure they're passing on their savings, because people can't afford to get insurance. You shouldn't have to choose between putting food on the table and insuring your house. You shouldn't have to worry about the extra burden of insurance to your business or have to shut your business down because you can't afford the insurance.

Townsville is a beautiful place to work, to live and to raise a family, but it comes with these challenges that need to be addressed. It's incumbent on the parliament to provide the support for those in regional areas when it comes to these skyrocketing prices of insurance. Another fantastic part of living in Townsville is that we get to host many people that travel for military games, military exercises and big events that see people from many nations converge on our city.

Talisman Sabre has just wrapped up; 39,000 troops from 19 countries came to the northern parts of Townsville to practise what a large-scale combat event would look like. Townsville, being the headquarters, saw soldiers from around the world working collaboratively, working with each other, learning, growing and making sure that we have the best levels of training and equipment that we need to fight in and win wars.

It was great to see so many of these soldiers, sailors and aviators in Townsville not only spending up big, helping our economy, but also training and supporting our defence force. To have a strong, prosperous nation, you need to have a strong, resilient and reliable defence force, and that's one thing that I think everyone in this parliament can commit to. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Payne ): There being no further grievances, the debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Sitting suspended from 13 : 25 to 15:59