Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we all know, drought is widespread across Queensland, New South Wales and parts of Victoria. So what can be done about it? Of course rain is the answer; however, we can also look to the future and talk about dams and capturing the rain that falls on this parched land. As we all know, Australia is famous for its droughts and floods, but when it does rain we must capture the rainfall and store it in a proper manner. We must still keep the environment in mind when doing this—and environmental flows are just as important for the people upstream as they are for those downstream.

We have a population of 25 million, and we—that's our Australian farmers—are feeding up to 75 million with what we produce. We have a good growth rate. It's been uninterrupted. It's been in the positive area for the last 27 years. Our farmers help the economy and have helped give us this good, continuous growth, so we must protect and droughtproof them for the future. There's an old saying, 'You don't know the value of water until the well runs dry.' It's getting dry in many locations. Dam levels are dropping across Queensland, New South Wales and other dry areas of Australia. We must continue our investment in agriculture. It will mean a better future for us all.

In my electorate of Flynn, young people are starting to return to the land where there's a good return on investment. They've really hit the jackpot of late with crops like chickpeas, blueberries, macadamias and avocados. These guys and women are prepared to put their hard-earned cash and backs into this new farming, and they are reaping the rewards. But we as a government must support them with proper infrastructure. I'm talking about good roads and, of course, dams, weirs and on-farm water storage. This is most important. Our agriculture GDP has jumped from $48 billion to $60 billion in the last year. With proper infrastructure there is no reason that we can't meet $100 billion a year in agriculture. This is why it's so important that we go ahead with our dams.

In Queensland, Rookwood Weir is all but finalised with the state government. The feds and the state are going 50-50 on Rookwood Weir. This is going to be a bonanza. It should be finished, they say, in about 2022. The Fitzroy catchment area is the second-largest catchment in Australia, behind the Murray-Darling. I've seen major floods in 2008, 2011 and 2013. When it rains, it rains, as the member for Leichardt knows. It takes just one cyclone and metres come down. It is up to us, the Australian government, to work with the Queensland government in making these dams a very viable option. It does not affect the environment at all. In fact, it lessens some of the freshwater rushing out onto the Great Barrier Reef. Freshwater is not too good for the Great Barrier Reef, so the less water we put out there, the better. It's a cycle and you can never stop it, because when it rains, it really rains. Rockwood will get underway and that will create about 2,100 jobs in construction. But, from then on, it will be farming jobs. There are no limits to what that will produce. We've already had a lot of interest from new farming groups wanting to partake in buying water allocations. What we must do is make sure the water is affordable. In Bundaberg, for instance, we have plenty of water in the dams around Bundaberg, but the ability to pump that water onto the cane fields is proving too hard financially. Consequently, the water is still in the dams. Also, the price of electricity forbids the farmers from using the water in Paradise Dam and Monduran Dam. There's millions to be made in agriculture. We just need to get the water to the farmers at the right price.

In the North and South Burnett shires, the farms along the Boyne River, which comes from the Boondooma Dam, have been cut off. This has affected blueberry farmers, nut farmers and other farmers along the river. North of the Boondooma Dam and south of the Boondooma Dam, the farmers have just had to make do with what they have. The Queensland government has cut off the water and diverted it into the Tarong Power Station, having elected to leave the farmers without water. This is being looked at closely by the residents, the North and South Burnett shires and me and I've asked the federal government to put a feasibility study in place so that we can evaluate where we go. They've got the soil types and we've got the farmers. What we need is a constant, reliable source of water for the North and South Burnett. We can extend the Boondooma Dam, we can extend the Claude Wharton Weir, and we can pipe water from Paradise Dam back to the Coalstoun Lakes, a very rich-soiled area. We can do lots of things, but I need a feasibility study to satisfy everyone so that we can go ahead with this project. For instance, the big dam at Emerald is less than 20 per cent full at the moment. This will cause hardship down the track. That dam looks after irrigation farms and we have about 12 coal mines in the area and they all need water, apart from the townships. The cattle and the grazing also takes a little percentage of all that.

Unfortunately, back in 2008 there was a bladder or balloon placed across the Bedford Weir just near Blackwater. Unfortunately, there was a family having a picnic below the Bedford Weir wall. You wouldn't believe it, but the bladder burst open and water gushed down the river, which is called the Mackenzie before it goes into the Fitzroy. Unfortunately, a young girl drowned. For that reason bladders, bags or whatever you want to call them are now illegal, so there will be no more balloons placed on top of dam walls to increase the volume of water that can be put in the dam.

So it's back to having more weirs, dams or on-farm storage built. Farmers said that, if the governments of the day do not want to spend money on weirs and dams, let them build their own on-farm storage. This works very well. They capture five to eight per cent of the water that falls on their land. If a broadacre farm that gets about 30 inches a year can capture five to eight per cent, it would be enough water to keep that farm going for two years.

We have a decision to make. We need the water infrastructure, whether it is dams, weirs or on-farm storage. This is a must. This is the time to do that sort of work. You build on-farm storage when it is dry. You can't do it when it's wet. We hope the wet season is not far away, but it will come and it will be wet. One thing that will stop a drought is a deluge, a good downpour.