ADJOURNMENT

Senator SCARR (Queensland) (20:06): I would like to associate myself with those remarks in relation to our wonderful Yazidi community. Australia successfully settled its one millionth refugee last year, and amongst that million are our wonderful Yazidi community. They're making a wonderful contribution to our beautiful country across the whole of Australia.

One of the avenues through which their stories are told is SBS. I rise as a proud co-chair of Parliamentary Friends of SBS. SBS is an absolute national treasure.

There have been some divisive prophets of doom wandering the Australian political landscape who have been saying negative things about that national treasure, SBS, and I say to those people: 'Watch SBS. Actually watch it. Turn it on'.

There's no better time to watch SBS than now with the wonderful World Cup going on. I want to congratulate everyone at SBS who's involved in the wonderful coverage that they're broadcasting of the World Cup. For that monumental victory Australia achieved over Turkiye, that two-nil victory, an average of 3.035 million viewers—3.035 million Australians—were watching SBS.

That's an amazing figure watching one of our national broadcasters. The total reach in relation to that match was 4,783,000 Australians. Nearly five million Australians were watching SBS, were watching Australia's wonderful Socceroos beat Turkiye.

Yet there are those prophets of doom—dismal, pessimistic, bleak voices—wandering our political landscape who call for its abolition. It's absolutely disgraceful. Forty-one per cent of viewers who were watching the football on SBS were watching through SBS On Demand, and I was one of them!

So congratulations on that method of making sure that all Australians can watch the world game on SBS. We should also remember that SBS, our national treasure broadcasts in 60 different languages. It reaches all parts of the Australian community and brings Australians together, just as our Socceroos bring Australians together.

Be it through TV, digital or audio, SBS reaches Australians whatever their backgrounds. The Reuters Digital news report also indicates that SBS is one of our most trusted sources of news. Not only is it broadcasting the world game.

Not only is it telling the stories of all Australians. It is also providing one of our most trusted news networks. Don't abolish it.

Don't abolish it—watch it! Watch SBS. Turn it on, like the nearly five million Australians who turned it on to watch Australia's victory over Turkiye.

Once again, Ipswich misses out on its fair share of infrastructure spending. I'm the only senator for Queensland with an office based in the greater Ipswich region, and, once again, Ipswich missed out in the last Labor budget. Ipswich is located in the south-west corridor, one of the fastest-growing parts of Queensland, and yet there was nothing in the budget for Ipswich.

There was nothing in terms of extra road spending, rail, bridges—the infrastructure that Ipswich needs. In fact, infrastructure spending was taken away from the greater Ipswich region with the abolition of the Inland Rail project. No longer will that monumental nation-building project go through the greater Ipswich region.

Ipswich will miss out again. Ipswich's fair share of infrastructure funding is going south to Victoria for the Suburban Rail Loop, an uncosted infrastructure project. No-one knows how much the Suburban Rail Loop in Victoria is ultimately going to cost, but Ipswich's fair share of infrastructure funding is being sent by the Labor government to Victoria.

It's an absolute disgrace. I was delighted to attend a citizenship ceremony in the wonderful town of Mareeba in Far North Queensland. I want to thank Mareeba Shire Council for hosting this wonderful citizenship event, where we greeted and welcomed 16 new Australians.

Thank you to Mayor Angela Toppin AM for the invitation and Deputy Mayor Lenore Wyatt for presiding. It was also a pleasure to meet councillors Amy Braes and Mladen Bosnic alongside David Kempton MP, the wonderful member for Cook. Our newest Australians who became Australian citizens in Mareeba came from New Zealand, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Brazil, Switzerland and Vietnam, each strengthening our wonderful national community and bringing something unique to the Australian story.

Mareeba is a proud multicultural community. The more than 70 languages spoken and over 75 different ethnicities represented in the Mareeba community all contribute in their own way to the Australian story. Thank you very much to Mareeba Shire Council; I look forward to visiting again soon.

Congratulations to those 16 new Australians. I was delighted to be asked to open the 119th annual Lowood Show. In fact, Acting Deputy President Grogan, if you want to make your way to Queensland next year, I'd be very happy to host you at the 120th Lowood Show.

It was a great event. Our agricultural shows are wonderful events, wherever they're held across Australia, and the Lowood Show is no exception to that. I want to acknowledge the leadership of Lowood Show Society President, Lynell Jendra, who's a wonderful host and puts her heart and soul into the Lowood Show.

I also want to acknowledge that it was very moving as we conducted the opening ceremony that there was a minute's silence for her late husband, Errol, who also made a great contribution to the Lowood Show. Events like the Lowood Show bring community together, and one of the ways in which the Lowood Show does that is involving children from all of the local schools.

It was so wonderful to see all the entries into the different arts and crafts prize categories by kids from the local schools. They were bringing the community together. It was wonderful to see.

I'd like to give a special shout-out to Mr Geoff Beattie. Geoff makes the best fruitcake in Queensland. It is unbelievable.

I saw his fruitcake—I wasn't allowed to eat it, which is probably a good thing for me! It's an absolutely beautiful rich fruitcake. He wins prize after prize after prize for his fruitcake.

I also had the great pleasure of talking to Geoff about the story of how he became such a wonderful chef, or cook, in relation to his fruitcake. You missed the 119th Lowood Show, but make sure you come along next year to the 120th Lowood Show. Earlier this year, I was delighted to attend the Indian Council of Australia Queensland's traditional new year Gudi Padwa event.

During that event, there were some wonderful contributions from some wonderful young Queenslanders, and I was particularly impressed by a beautiful performance that was given by Ramaa Apurv Kusookar. I want to put on the record of this place how impressed I was by her performance at this wonderful festival which was held in our Roma Street Parkland. It's hard to believe that Ramaa is as young as she is, given the poise and the excellence in which she made her presentation in front of a crowd at the Roma Street Parkland.

So I really want to give my heartfelt recognition to Ramaa—well done; I'm incredibly impressed—and I also want to congratulate your wonderful parents, Apurv and Sarita Kusookar, for their contribution in raising a wonderful young Australian.