FEDERAL Member for Maranoa Bruce Scott is remaining positive about the future in the wake of therecent floods.

At Parliament’s first sitting for 2011 tomorrow, Mr Scott will deliver an account of how Maranoa has been affected by the floods.

Question time has been cancelled to allow all relevant federal representatives to describe flood-affected damage in their constituencies for the record.

While some of Mr Scott’s report will outline tales of hardship and heartache, he said it is just as important to remain optimistic about getting back up and re-building the economy.

“I want to talk about it in a positive way and say we’re open for business; that’s the most important thing we can do.

The cyclone that hit North Queensland was devastating, but we don’t want those images to portray us across the nation and across the world,” he said.

“That’s not to take away from the turmoil and hardship those affected have been through though.

“I also want to push the message out among communities that it is so important their money is spent locally, by buying locally.”

Mr Scott said wet weather had produced “the best season in 10 years”, filling up once-depleted creek and river systems.

“I don’t want to hear another South Australian say we’ve taken their water,” he quipped.

“We’re going to flush out the Murray Darling basin about ten-fold.”