This is a very practical discussion about the fact that one of the largest coal companies in the world, Adani, wants to build one of the, develop one of the largest coal mines in Australia in this region of Australia. And if they get the green light to do that, that will secure the economic future of people in Rockhampton, and people in central Queensland. It will secure their jobs in the future, and that's what they're concerned about.
George BrandisWe must break out of this mindset in Australia that we are a small nation on the other side of the world from the main, great Western nations. Australia is the twelfth largest economy in the world. We are a not insignificant player in commerce, in geopolitics and we must be in culture as well and we are.
George BrandisI'm reading Barnaby Rudge, one of the less well-known Dickens novels. I've been a life-long lover of Charles Dickens ever since I think A Tale of Two Cities was the first Dickens novel I read.
George BrandisWell I'm not making predictions. But the point I can - what I can say to you to contribute to your thinking is as somebody who has been out knocking on doors, doing the street corners, speaking to constituents right across the country is that the Government - that people understand that the Government's message of jobs and growth is addressing their concerns and they have a level of - a high level of confidence that Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison are the people who can deliver.
George BrandisHistorically, it's very unusual after a change of government for the new government not to be returned.
George BrandisI wouldn't necessarily assume that because Capricornia has traditionally been a Labor seat, that it'll go back to the Labor Party this time because the big issue in Capricornia which is based on the city of Rockhampton is the fact that the economy is - the regional economy is in a poor shape as a result, in particular of the decline of the mining industry and they are looking to the Carmichael mine, the Adani project as containing all of the prospects that they see for their future and that is why people in Rockhampton are very, very fearful of a Labor-Greens government.
George Brandis