JANUARY 21, 2016: AS the Member for Dawson, and Chairman of the Coalition’s Backbench Policy Committee on Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources, I wish to state in the strongest of terms that it’s not just Townsville and the 237 Queensland Nickel workers who are in need of assistance right now; it’s just about every resource community around the nation, and particularly the Bowen Basin.While I am as angry as the next person about the fate of the workers at Yabulu, and they are deserving of every bit of assistance offered, it’s a crying shame that State and Federal Governments of all political persuasions have not done enough to stabilise, stimulate and transition economies in resource communities.In the Bowen Basin we have seen job losses in the thousands at mine sites, at mining service companies and in mining town businesses whose trade has dried up in the downturn.About 18 months ago, I asked then prime minister Tony Abbott to bring in a rescue package for Bowen Basin communities, especially Mackay, akin to what areas like Geelong, South Australia and Tasmania have received in the past (Regional Innovation & Investment Funds). This request was sadly denied as the government moved to end corporate welfare and handouts to businesses.However, what I proposed wasn’t a handout to business; it was a mechanism to transition struggling economies which has happened repeatedly under this term of the Liberal National Coalition Government. Instead of a rescue package the then prime minister said what we should do was fast-track infrastructure projects to get new jobs going. This could have worked but we have a State bureaucracy that would take three months to boil an egg.The Mackay Ring Road is a case in point. Despite the Queensland Government having received $10 million in Federal funding to do planning on the road back in 2010, the detailed engineering and design works for the project only started in early 2015 and it isn’t scheduled to finish until late 2016.This is absolutely criminal and there should be action taken by the State to fix this. Civil engineers I have spoken to tell me that such a timeframe is way beyond what is normal for bigger jobs in the private sector.As the fast-tracking option put forward by Prime Minister Abbott was pretty much not an option in the short term (when it's needed) we need to go back to square one.A Regional Innovation & Investment Fund for resource communities suffering from the downturn in coal and other commodities is now desperately needed, especially in the Bowen Basin.I spoke with then Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane before the change of Prime Minister last year and he informed me he was working on such a plan. Since the swearing in of the new Turnbull ministry there has been no movement on this. The focus has been on start-ups and the digital economy, which is great, but not everyone has the ability to set up a business or work with computers, particularly those who have known mining or manual labour their whole life.We need a focus on this serious issue facing resource communities.With the change in PM, a new Coalition agreement was gained which included a commitment to a regional jobs package. That part of the agreement was put there at my insistence during deliberations in the National Party Room of which I am a member.Now is the time for the jobs package commitment to be honoured with the establishment of a Regional Innovation & Investment Fund for resource communities. We will need hundreds of millions of dollars to be earmarked for this to work properly, and even then it may not be enough, but it will be a start.In December I put such a proposal to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, Treasurer Scott Morrison, Industry Minister Christopher Pyne, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash and Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg.My proposal would see a fund established to enable businesses to bid for dollars to transition their core activity to new markets, thereby creating new, long-term, sustainable jobs in resource communities which are struggling.State governments, particularly the Queensland Government, will have an obligation to contribute to this fund as the Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian Governments have done when similar funds have been set up in their respective states.I will issue more details about this plan publicly in the next week.Both levels of government must act now for struggling resource communities, particularly the Central and North Queensland communities of the Bowen Basin, rather than focus purely on Townsville in the wake of the Yabulu crisis.Holding marginal seats should not be the basis behind funding allocations. The situation is dire and the need for action to assist struggling resources communities is long overdue.