Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise once again in the House to advocate for the raising of Rookwood and Eden Bann weirs near Rockhampton. Capricornia faces a major jobs crisis due to the coalmining downturn, tough times for small business and a reduction in tourism visitors. What we critically need is key water infrastructure to secure future growth, jobs and exports for our agricultural sectors and to unlock our city's full potential. For some time now I have been advocating for Commonwealth funding to kick-start the raising of Rookwood and Eden Bann weirs on the Fitzroy River. These projects would create thousands of potential jobs related to agriculture, small business, construction and advisory services.

Recently I took the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources over the Rookwood site so that they could learn more about the benefits of the project firsthand. The Prime Minister indicated that Australians are inspired by the development of water infrastructure. Rookwood is indeed a nation-building project. We are a hot dry continent—the driest in the world. While we cannot make it rain, what we can do is build water infrastructure that can allow vast amounts of water to be piped to locations that previously could not sustain major irrigated industries. Rookwood allows for water to be used for new agricultural pursuits in the Fitzroy corridor near Rockhampton.

But this is not just about Rockhampton. Rookwood is about a joint regional city approach to solving water storage issues in Central Queensland. Central Queensland's Fitzroy River corridor is the second biggest inland catchment area in Australia, offering vast amounts of water. Experts say that one technical problem is that the area is naturally shallow when it comes to storing this water at great depth. Rookwood offers a unique solution. Water can be harnessed here and piped to the Awoonga Dam near Gladstone—a very deep holding point. From there it can be piped further afield to inland areas like Biloela. This serves to further justify investing in Rookwood. By focussing on a joint, multicouncil, multiregional solution we can use the Fitzroy project to expand industry and agriculture in vast areas that we could not develop before.

Some politicians are convinced that the Nathan Dam project is Queensland's best water project to fund. However, I, along with many experts and water researchers, disagree with that sentiment. Nathan Dam has many flaws when compared to Rookwood near Rockhampton. By comparison, Rookwood alone has the ability to provide as much as 86,000 megalitres of water for agriculture, industrial and urban use, which is far more than Nathan Dam would provide. Rookwood is affordable. The cost of Rookwood alone would be about $300 million compared to the debt burden of Nathan Dam, which is estimated to cost at least $1 billion.

Nathan Dam would have a greater footprint, which would impact on the environment. Nathan Dam would also fail to secure water supplies for urban development in Yeppoon, Rockhampton and Gladstone. This is alarming, as studies show that these cities could potentially run completely out of water at least twice a century. Importantly, for hardworking families doing it tough in Capricornia, the Nathan Dam site is too far away from the footprints of cities like Rockhampton and Yeppoon, where job creating infrastructure is urgently needed.

Sound research shows that Rookwood and Eden Bann weirs have the potential to double agricultural production in the Fitzroy basin, create an additional 2,100 jobs, boost additional services and secondary industries by a multiplier of three and guarantee future water security for urban and industrial use in the Gladstone, Rockhampton and Livingstone shires. Significantly, I have already laid the groundwork by successfully lobbying to get the Fitzroy Agricultural Corridor—that is, Rookwood and Eden Bann—listed on both the government's green and white papers on Northern Australia and the expansion of Australia's agricultural diversity.