A nation-building infrastructure program can save Australia

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STATEMENT

The funds from the stimulus packages are starting to filter through to workers who have been stood down or sacked as a result of this monumental China virus slow down.

The funds are welcomed by those who still need to pay rent and buy food despite the economic shutdown.

But while the funds are great, they will mostly be used up for short term household survival expenses, and at the end we will have chalked up a national debt exceeding a trillion dollars with nothing permanent to show for it.

Businesses will close and jobs will be lost. It is not a pretty picture and I imagine many of your readers are feeling sick in the guts just thinking about it.

So now is the time to plan and get motivated so we are in a good position to bounce back once the virus has been conquered.

I have proposed what I am calling the Advance Australia Fund, which is a fund of tens of billions of dollars that are specifically directed to nation-building infrastructure that will help Australia back out of the economic black hole.

We are spending money to support out-of-work Australians today, so why not also spend now to create opportunities that will be very much needed by jobseekers in the future?

Three projects I have proposed are a hybrid Bradfield Scheme to bring water from northern Queensland to the south west, a pipe from Lake Argyle in Western Australia to pump water to Perth and the south of the state, and a gas pipeline connecting Western Australia’s rich offshore gas fields to the eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.

I am sure there are also other project ideas which, like these, will be money makers for Australia rather than money takers. We need to put our thinking caps on and begin planning now to get these projects underway as soon as practical.

Australia is experiencing horrible times at the moment, but, when this crisis inevitably passes, we need to make sure we are in the best position possible to rebuild Australia into the great nation that it will be again. Infrastructure delivered through the Advance Australia Fund will help achieve that.

Senator Pauline Hanson
Senator for Queensland
One Nation Leader

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