COMMITTED TO ROADS, WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

Driving long distances to family and friends over Christmas or to the coast for your January holiday this year, chances are you got stuck in roadworks somewhere.

Although frustrating at times, roadworks are actually a good thing. It means work is happening. It means the road is becoming safer.

And right across the nation, that's what the federal government is doing. In places big and small our investment in infrastructure is making a real and noticeable impact on people's lives.

Whether it's ending the talk and investing $10 billion in making the Bruce Highway safer, or smaller, yet no less important projects such as our investment of $2.58 million to seal parts of the Cloncurry-Dajarra Road in Queensland's north west through the Northern Australia Beef Roads Program, we are helping Queenslanders get home sooner and safer to their families.

For too long, country communities along the Bruce Highway waited for a government to fund the works to make it the safe, corridor of commerce Queensland needs and deserves.

That's what our government is building.

The once-in-a-generation investment in the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing is nearing completion and the opportunities for businesses, farmers and people in the Garden City continue to grow.

But making life easier for Queenslanders and their families does not stop there.

We want to invest in capturing water and giving Australian agriculture the boost it deserves. That means building dams.

Just recently, I went to Emerald and Gladstone to put another $500 million on the table to work with the states and territories to build more dams and harness the power of water.

This is on top of the funds we are investing to build the $176 million Rookwood Weir, $28 million Mareeba-Dimbulah Water Supply Scheme and $11.8 million Nogoa Mackenzie Water Supply Scheme in northern Queensland.

The government investment under the National Water Infrastructure Fund now totals more than $1.3 billion to help states and territories and their project partners deliver major water infrastructure projects that will increase water reliability and security for farmers, businesses and communities.

This is what we stand for. And it's what we are investing in to help grow the regions and the economy into the future.

Michael McCormack is Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of The Nationals.

Published in the Queensland Country Life, 24 January 2019.