It took months and months to get the minister for tourism to come and meet with my charter boat industry. During the election the former tourism minister flew in and delivered policy on the run that simply left many of my operators worse off because of the lack of funding that the state government decided to allocate to the electorate of the Whitsundays. Instead, you gave waivers to operators in Far North Queensland. I recognise their desperate need, but what you did not do was give an equitable amount of funding to the people of the Whitsundays.

I now have charter boat operators who will potentially lose their businesses in the coming months. The then minister flew in, smiled and flew out. I now have operators who have six vessels and they only received a rebate for one vessel. Thank goodness for the private sector who stepped in and who have had to cut marina fees up to 40 per cent to ensure that people can feed their families at the end of the day. You should hang your head in shame that you did not think to extend that funding or go back and check in with those rebates.

I would also like to outline the lack of foresight and strategic investment by the government when it comes to ecotourism. In our electorate of the Whitsunday we have shovel-ready projects—they are ready to go. The Whitsunday mountain bike trails need $1.6 million. The government could not even make an election commitment during the campaign. It is ready to go. These are shovel-ready projects. In the Mackay electorate there are the Pioneer Valley trails. Hardly any money has been put in by this government. The local council now has to fund that project, so it will proceed despite the lack of commitment by this state government. Then there is the Whitsunday Skyrail project, which will continue to sit in abeyance waiting to see what the department of environment will do.