CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr HAMILTON (Groom) (16:29): I rise today to speak in praise of working together—something that we're very lucky to be able to do across all three levels of government in the Darling Downs. I started off this term by thanking volunteers and supporters and I acknowledge how much work goes on between all levels of government, particularly around the Toowoomba region, in making sure that we get our fair share and that the funding that comes through works for the residents of our region.

I'll take the briefest moment to say thank you to my colleague the member for Wright, who takes up the eastern flank of my electorate, and to the Leader of the Nationals, who takes up the boundary to the west. We've had the luck in the Darling Downs of having the Queensland LNP take charge of the state. The last time we had that, we saw a fantastic investment in the Toowoomba region's second range crossing.

It's great to see investments already starting to come into our region thanks to the change of government. David Janetzki, the Queensland Treasurer, is a local boy. He grew up on a dairy farm in Jondaryn; his first job was milking cows and he's now Treasurer of the state.

He has made his way there via London and working at Heritage Bank. I think any assessment of the budget he's just handed down would be very commendable, given the circumstances in which he took over that role. I think he's going to do a great job for us in our region, and I thank him for his help.

Trevor Watts, the member for Toowoomba North, is now the assistant minister to the Premier. I thank Trevor for his constant engagement during my time in this role. This is something that has missed the media's attention: the 'post and boast' laws—these are laws that have been enacted in four states now in Australia—came from Toowoomba, and they came from Trevor Watts.

A resident brought the issue to him, and he raised the issue with me. We got it into the media, and within about a month it spread like wildfire. Thank you, Trevor, for standing up for the community and putting in front of me things that come to you.

The last one in my region is the member for Condamine, Pat Weir, the Speaker of the Queensland parliament. He is calm, considered, principled—exactly what you'd expect from a farmer who has walked into that role. What I'm most happy about is that we've already seen a commitment from the Queensland government to invest in the equestrian centre in Toowoomba, bringing the Olympic Games out into our region—something that's very important.

We talk about the Brisbane Olympics; it started off as the South-East Queensland Olympics. That was first promoted by the then mayor of Toowoomba, Paul Antonio.