It is a great honour to have been elected to the Senate by the Queensland people to represent the Queensland people. I am only here because of the people and I hope I can repay their trust in my term as a Senator.

My first job is to listen to what people want and I intend to get around to all parts of Queensland in my first six months on the job.

I am setting up the first Senate office in Rockhampton in more than 20 years because the Senate should fill the areas that do not have as many representatives from the House.

I especially want to help regional Queensland grow because that is where the future of Queensland is. We have so much potential to build bigger towns, develop new areas of our state and make sure we can provide a job for everyone who wants a job.

The first item on my agenda is to help get rid of the carbon tax in the Senate so that we can bring down the cost of living and the costs of doing business. The carbon tax has always been an anti-Queensland tax and it will be a great day for the state when we are rid of it.

Getting rid of the carbon tax will reverse the recent tendency of Canberra's to continually increase costs for people and business. The carbon tax was a policy that was designed to make people poorer.

We desperately need to improve productivity in Australia, but you don't make your car go faster by putting on weight and shutting down cylinders in your engine.

1 July 2014