Barnaby Joyce is making a major election appeal to Queensland voters and the coal industry with money he doesn’t yet have for a dam which for decades has been denied environmental approval.
But the political importance of the 970,000-megalitre project to the Morrison government’s election prospects could guarantee its progress this time.
The deputy prime minister and Nationals leader wants the federal government to spend $483 million to part-fund construction of a massive dam at Urannah, in central Queensland.
The funding could reinforce the Coalition’s electoral dominance of a regional Queensland seat, directly benefiting the Nationals’ holdings of Flynn, Capricornia and Dawson. It would also send an explicit message to the fossil fuel industry that the government is not retreating from spending significant amounts backing coal production — a message it would also hope reaches voters in such electorates as Hunter.
Coalmining would get a third of the water the private operator wants to collect by damming the Broken River, some 90km west of Mackay. This would not only service existing mining but would allow for expansion and mines to be opened. Most of the remainder would go to agricultural irrigation. The plan includes hydroelectric generation.
The aggressive funding proposal also puts pressure on the Queensland Labor government to provide approval and cash.
Joyce will say in Brisbane today that it was money “in the bank”, but will concede it would need official confirmation in the March 29 budget. And Environment Minister Sussan Ley told Radio National an extensive environmental impact study would need to be prepared and considered before construction could begin on the $2.9 billion dam by Bowen River Utilities.
Ley said the first step had to be made by the Queensland government: “We will consider matters of environmental significance that impacts the dam, on world heritage places, on natural heritage, on migratory species, on threatened species and so on.
“There is no suggestion that this proposal steps outside our national environmental law.”
The dam was first considered about 60 years ago and 25 feasibility studies have denied it environmental endorsement. Local Indigenous groups have also opposed it.
The government hopes public opinion will outweigh the objections by stressing the jobs — 1200 during construction, 600 to run it — and revenue it says would flow.
“Our government understands that building and growing our nation requires industries that produce wealth, such as the mining, agriculture and farming sectors,” Joyce will say. “It is these industries that earn the export dollars that will help make our country as strong as possible as quickly as possible.
“That’s why we have put $483 million in the bank to build Urannah Dam. Our investment will further drive the development of central Queensland, ensuring businesses and industries have the water security they need to grow into the future.”
This wealth guarantee is contradicted by an economic analysis prepared for a Mackay conservation group which argued the return on every dollar spent on the dam would be just 75 cents. A separate report claimed the dam would cover 9850 hectares of suitable high-value cropping farm development and 12,250 hectares of improved grazing land.
Indigenous groups have said the area to be covered would include burial grounds and ceremonial sites.
As a dam to retain a pool of water it’s nuts. But as a dam to retain a pool of Nationals’ voters it all fits.
Brilliant analysis – congrats
Spot on.
It requires 600 people to operate a single dam?
Seems far fetched.
Of course it requires 600 people. It’s only been rejected 25 times. So many holes to plug, so many fingers required.
Piercing analysis Billy – keep up the good work!!!!!
Reminiscent of Adani’s 14,000 coal mining jobs. It’s a tried & true rort.
Another part of the rort is to have a multitude of so-called strict environmental conditions that nobody will ever enforce. In 2015, Greg Hunt announced, ahem, 36 of the strictest conditions in Australian history for Adani. You could count on Sussan Ley and her lipstick to come up with even more conditions with even less meaning.
They got Adani to do the employment estimates.
How Bravus of them.
And yet later, when they – with Bravus bravado, admitted that post construction it would need a mere handful to operate it was rarely acknowledged nor incorporated into the ‘debate’.
Hydro Tasmania employs ~1,300 people.
Quite a few of them will be working on “battery of the nation” projects.
There are 11 power station on the River Derwent system alone. Around 27 power stations all up. A multitude of dams and lakes.
Plus Hydro Tasmania are owners/part owners of a handful of wind power generators.
600 for one dam, one power station and some flow control systems would seem to be OTT.
I’d be more than willing for my tax dollars to fund a dam to stop the endless flow of BS from Barnaby’s mouth.
Where the hell does this bunch of idiots get the impression that they have a ‘mandate’ to waste public money on massive schemes the we know destroy the environment? The lunacy is getting extreme. They couldn’t even build effing pork barrel carparks and now fantasise about a ridiculous mega-project that is clearly beyond the incompetent capability of this embarrassing government. That it has failed to get environmental approval for 60 years is only one factor in the delusion.
Arse Hoxes
How wonderful to read …” We’ve put $483 million in the bank for this dam…” Because, well you know this shows where priorities lie with the federal LNP government…
Tough luck for the Black Spring/Summer Bushfire survivors still waiting for money from 2019-20 ….Oh and Tough luck to those who’ve lost everything in the recent floods from Queensland down to the Hawkesbury.
The sooner this government is buried …the better Australia and its people will be!
That should be “you’ve put 483 million in my wallet for this dam”.