Well thank you ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming out, this morning and thank you very much for my good mate Michael McCormack to come all the way from Wagga Wagga to be here in Rockhampton to announce a Shadow Ministerial lineup. First before I get to that, I do want to just say thanks to the people of Central Queensland. Coming up on 12 here in a Senate career representing the great people of Central Queensland, and I wouldn't be here without the fantastic support I've had from Rockhampton, from Gladstone, from Emerald, from all the places of Central Queensland. 

Over that 12 years, I'm very, very proud of what we have achieved as the LNP CQ team. We've achieved as a team, with Michelle Landry, going further back with Ken O'Dowd, with George Christensen, now with Colin Boyce and Andrew Willcox, and now with some great state members too in Glenn Kelly and Nigel Hutton and Donna Kirkland. 

So as a team here in Central Queensland, we've delivered a lot. We’ve got the road that you just came out on, the Rocky Grasmere Road upgrade duplication. 

We built the Rookwood Weir, which we might say some more about in a second. We've got the four lanes that's just opened up to Yeppoon. Rocky Ring Road of course, just starting near here, is now underway thanks to the efforts of Central Queensland to keep that funding from Labor cuts. And the Adani Carmichael coal mine as well, which employs two thousand odd Queenslanders in regional areas as well. So that's what I've been all about my career is getting in and fighting for our regions to get their fair share of the funding and to make sure that there is a better standard of life for people in regional Australia, because the future of our country is there. 

And so today it is a great privilege and honour as the new Leader of The Nationals Party to welcome in a new Shadow Ministerial line up. I want to thank Angus Taylor for agreeing to these appointments. With this team we have a posse of patriots who love our country and just want to see more of Australia. We want more Australian mining, more Australian manufacturing, more Australian farming, more Australian jobs, more Australian everything. 

Because the more Australian we are, the better we are. The more Australia expands out of its boundaries in the capital cities into the regions, the better the life will be for all Australians. Our living standards will go up, and we'll protect that way of life. Because it is in regional Australia that Australians can achieve the birth right of every Australian, to have a backyard big enough to play cricket in. And that's what I want for my young children. That's what I want for all Australians, including those who live in capital cities, because if we can provide opportunity in the regions, some people will move out of the capitals and even those who don't want to will be better off because houses will be freed up for them. 

So with the Ministerial lineup today, obviously it's great to have Michael back. I worked with Michael for many, many years, including serving with Michael while he was Deputy Prime Minister, in the Turnbull and Morrison governments. It's just fantastic to have you here, mate, in Rockhampton. And Michael has accepted the role of Shadow Minister for Water, and for Veterans' Affairs. And I've made this appointment because Michael has the runs on the board when it comes to using our water resources to building our great nation. 

When Michael was Deputy Prime Minister, he set up the National Water Grid. When Michael was Deputy Prime Minister, we got the Rookwood Weir here in Central Queensland, which is now helping grow eight hundred thousand macadamia trees just west of here. And when Michael was Deputy Prime Minister, we were building dams again. This government has stripped all that funding. 

The Labor Party and the Greens have teamed up to say no to dams. Well, the new Nationals team is going to have a big green light for dams in our country, because dams is what build our nation. 

They create wealth. They create jobs. They create those opportunities for people to move out of capital cities, to grow and develop great towns like Emerald around the Fairbairn Dam. And so it's great to have Michael as part of that team. This new announcement will also see the Assistant Treasurer move into the Shadow Cabinet role, to a Shadow Cabinet role. This will mean that The Nationals Party will be at the forefront of our economic policy debate. Unfortunately, under this Labor government, living standards have fallen in our country at a level we've never seen before. 

And if we don't arrest that, the whole Australian way of life will be put at risk. And so we understand The Nationals, that we need to grow our economy, we need to attract business and investment to our regions, and that's what's going to restore the living standards of all Australians. I also would like to pay tribute to David Littleproud. He's achieved a lot in the four years, as Nationals Leader. We got the nuclear agenda on the debate. We defeated the divisive Voice referendum under his leadership. 

And we've got important commitments to establish divestiture laws for the first time in this country under David’s oversight. I'm really happy that David has accepted a continuing role in our Nationals Party team as the Shadow Minister for Emergency Management and Tourism. He's going to make a massive contribution, to the economic debate in our country, to The Nationals Party, and I wish him and his family, Amelia, all the best in the future. I'd also just re-iterate the other appointments to the Shadow Cabinet. 

Darren Chester moves into the Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry role as my Deputy Leader. He lives in a forestry area, and this government has done enormous damage in just a few months really, to our forestry sector, and he's going to take up the fight for forestry jobs and the right of all Australians to use Australian-made wood products. 

Bridget McKenzie as the Leader of The Nationals in the Senate continues. 

I was going to say my boss. She is my boss, actually, in the Senate. So Bridget, as my boss in the Senate, is going to continue on, as Shadow Minister for Infrastructure. 

Susan McDonald continues on doing the great work she's doing as Shadow Minister for Resources in Northern Australia. Loves Northern Australia. Loves resources. She fights tirelessly for those things. I mentioned the Assistant Treasurer role, which will be filled by Kevin Hogan, who's got an enormous background and experience in finance, and will bring real weight to that role. There are other appointments there. I welcome all those people. I do want to pay tribute to the work that Pat Conaghan has done. It's just the toughest part of this job. He hasn't been in this particular shadow ministerial team. 

He's still going to be an important, massive, massively important person in the broader Nationals team. He's done a lot on excise, on vaping, on protecting people from the First Guardian, disasters, and we look forward to working with Pat in the future. Ross Cadell, will be moving back to our backbench, but he'll be appointed the co-chair of our Coalition Policy Development Committee. He's got great experience developing policy and he’s going to make a big, big contribution there as well. Can I just thank all of my Nationals colleagues. It's been a traumatic week for many of us, but, it has been handled very, very smoothly, and once again, I thank David Littleproud for the way he has managed that. 

We've got a country to save now. We've got a country that's on the skids, and we are going to work tirelessly now as a band of patriots, who love our country, fighting for it, pushing for things that make our country better, and most of all from The Nationals Party perspective, making sure that there is a future for our children in regional Australia. With that, I'll ask Michael to say a few words, and then happy to take your questions. 

MICHAEL McCORMACK 

Well, great to be here in Rockhampton, certainly beef capital of the known universe, and, and I say that with all due deference to any other cattle-producing areas in Australia. I know there's three million head around here, and that's a big number. And, I well recall being down in that ring, with a group of National Party members when somebody let out a stray bull and, I've got to say, being in politics, it's a bit like that sometimes. But, thank you, Matthew, for your faith in what I present and what I bring to the table, and certainly last week, as Matthew has said, was a rather tumultuous week. 

But we move on, and we move on under a new Leader, and when Matthew Canavan speaks, the nation listens. It certainly does. When Matthew Canavan writes a piece in a national newspaper or even a local one, people read it, and they follow it, and they understand that he is a true patriot. 

They understand he's a family man. They understand that he brings to the leadership of The National Party a very, very good perspective, and these are difficult times. We are at a really important juncture in our nation's history. We've got traditional politics under pressure like never before. 

We've got people who are very aggrieved, very disaffected with the way things are going, and they're hurting. They're hurting when they go to pay their power bills. They're hurting when they do their family budget. They're hurting very much every time they go and fill up. That's if they can actually fill up at the bowser at the petrol station. And of course, when they go to do the groceries, they're getting less and less in their trolleys. And Matthew and The Nationals and the Coalition team per se under Angus Taylor, we have to address that, and we are addressing that. We're coming up with the policies and, certainly, what we need to do in that regard to help everyday, ordinary Australians in a very, very difficult time. 

I'm very proud to be taking over both the Water and the Veterans' Affairs portfolios. Certainly with veterans, we know that in the last Census, 581 thousand veterans in the 2021 Census, and that means that one in twenty Australian households has somebody who has served this country, somebody who has put on a uniform and put the protection of Australia, at their front and centre, who's risked their life to go and serve our nation. And at this point in time, when the world is in so much trouble, we need people like that. 

Matthew talked about a posse of patriots. Well, there's no better posse of patriots than those people who put on an ADF uniform and go out and serve our country every day. And I come from Wagga Wagga, where there's the Home of the Soldier Kapooka Army base which turns out all the recruits for the Australian Army, which if you spend any given time in the Royal Australian Air Force, you will end up at Forest Hill base. And believe it or not, even though it's a long, long way from the nearest drop of seawater, we have an important Navy installation there working with the other arms of the defence, with eighty personnel on the ground in Wagga Wagga in that inland regional centre. 

So it is very much a garrison city. And of course, in the water space, that's such an important thing. I believe that the greatest moral challenge of our times is to be able to grow enough to feed Australia and more besides. Never mind all the other claptrap you'll hear from the Greens and everybody else. We need to grow more food, and we do it the best. We do it the best around here with the Rookwood Weir. You heard the statistics from Matthew before about what the Fitzroy River, about the what this total area produces. And that's only thanks to having a good and ready water supply. And you heard Matthew before talking about the need to build more dams. I'm proud that in the time I was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia for just three and a third years, we built a dam at Scottsdale in Northeast Tasmania from start to finish. 

Now, it was only going to help eighty-five irrigators. Imagine what we could do if we build more Scottsdale dams right around the region. You’ve got Uranna. You've got many projects. Emu Swamp Dam, Stanthorpe. You've got so many projects there that are just waiting for the get-go, waiting for the political will. And I'm more than happy to talk with any states, to get through the mire of paperwork, the red and green paperwork and bureaucracy that we put in front of building dams. 

We ought to be building more dams. We've got a bloke here who wants to do it, who's got a track record of delivery, a track record of saying, "When there are impossible things, let's get on and do it." I mean, how else would The Nationals have put a Senator in place as our Leader when we've never had a Senator before? 

But we've taken on a challenge that I know is necessary for the times, and unconventional times require unconventional measures. We don't have an unconventional bloke here. We've got a very traditional bloke, but somebody who's willing to test and challenge himself and our party to make things happen. 

I've got every faith that he'll do just that. 

SENATOR MATT CANAVAN 

Well said, Michael. Well said, mate. Thanks, mate.