Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The annual streamflow of the Flinders River, one of Australia's biggest rivers, is 6.6 million megalitres. This means that in some years it runs much greater than that and in some years it runs less. The federal parliament and Senate unanimously resolved, with the support of the Greens, to allocate around six million megalitres for the Murray-Darling waters for irrigation. This is around 27 per cent of 21 million megalitres streamflow in the Murray-Darling. Applied to the Flinders River, this formula would provide over two million megalitres for irrigation.

However, in an extraordinary and appalling decision, the Queensland water resources department of the Queensland government has decided that only 350,000 megalitres will be allocated. Infinitely worse still, it has allocated that 350,000 megalitres to absentee landlord corporations—two of the biggest agricultural corporations in Australia, whose shareholders include two of the richest families in Australia. In sharp contrast, the Hughenden irrigation development corporation, a type of cooperative, requested 200,000 megalitres of the two million megalitres that should be available for irrigation. Within 10 days of the Hughenden community benefit application being received by the Queensland minister—after the government had sat for 15 months on the application—he rushed the golden handshake for these two big corporations though to a completed allocation.

Water is sold in New South Wales at $850 a megalitre. If 230,000 has been allocated to these corporations, as we have heard, then clearly they have received $180 million of allocation: a decision by water resources and their minister to enrich the rich with a $100 million golden handshake and to leave the poor infinitely poorer without this water. Since QWRD is only making 350,000 megalitres for allocation, this water is taken, by definition, off the Hughenden and Cloncurry communities, which desperately need that water, and people who live in North Queensland and given to two absentee landlord corporations, both of which may or may not be sold to the Chinese in the near future. Whilst there is no conceivable way one could justify the minister's decision, nor its curious timing, there can be no earthly justification for the actions of QWRD.

The history of mismanagement has cost the people of Queensland over $1,000 million: the Tully-Millstream debacle; the Traveston dam; $300 million in inquiries into northern water schemes, with no schemes having ever been built; the Gold Coast desalination plant; and, worst of all, the Cubbie Station decision. A $130 million golden handshake was given to one person, and the officer enabling and facilitating that then moved out to take a position of employment with Cubbie Station. Probably the worst aspect of this decision was that it led to a corruptive water allocation system on the Murray-Darling. (Time expired)

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