Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to inform the House of a tale of Shakespearean proportions, or certainly that's how it's starting to look. It's not Romeo and Juliet or The Taming of the Shrew; it's a tale of woe—or more a tale of spin. Once again I speak about the hapless Palaszczuk Labor government in Queensland and the Paradise Dam debacle. Paradise Dam is a dam near my electorate of Hinkler, in the electorate of Flynn but supplying the irrigators of Childers, Bundaberg and elsewhere and supplying town water to Childers, Woodgate, Bundaberg and elsewhere. This tale started couple of weeks ago, and the first tale of spin was this: 'It's great news for farmers! It's free water!' The state Labor government announced free water for irrigators, provided you could use it in the 10 weeks they intended to release it from the Paradise Dam, otherwise it would run out to sea. A couple of days later an unspecified safety issue was the problem, and they now planned to reduce the height of the dam by five metres, reducing its capacity by 85,000 megalitres. One of the more recent announcements, from this week, was that it was the fault of the Campbell Newman government. Today the Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy, the Hon. Dr Anthony Lynham, said in a media release: 'It's fantastic news. Now the Gregory Weir is at full supply level.' We weren't aware that this was a problem. In fact, he stated, 'It was approaching a critical low.' He continued:

… Sunwater and the Government are making every effort to ensure that the water that has to be released for safety is being used as productively as possible.

…   …   …

… to allow works to improve the dam's stability during extreme rain events.

The Queensland Labor government has also announced that it will have an inquiry into the effect on emergency procedures for the Bundaberg region.

None of these announcements—not one of them—actually states what the problem is. We have not been informed as to why the state government is taking this action, but we know what the results are. The results are that 110,000 megalitres of water is flowing down the river, 85,000 megalitres of capacity is being removed from the state's newest dam, and rumours are running wild around the community, because it just doesn't know what could happen. Once again we have a state Labor government that simply won't tell the truth. All we are asking for is transparency. What is the issue with the dam? What do you plan to do about it? When will it be repaired? How much will it cost? Will you reinstate it to its full holding capacity of 300,000 megalitres? I say again to Premier Palaszczuk: enough is enough. Stop the blame game. Stop the ducking. Stop the telling of the spin, the announcements every other day that it is someone else's fault or that it's fantastic news. Our community simply know that this is bad for them, bad for the regional economy and bad for agriculture, and that is bad for our future.

What is the truth? There are unconfirmed and unsubstantiated rumours about a problem with the dam wall. There are unsubstantiated and unconfirmed discussions about a plan to lower it by 17 metres. This dam cost approximately $300 million to construct. They've spent over $60 million on repairs post flood events. They expect to spend up to $100 million to reduce the capacity of the dam. When you add that into what's happening at the Rookwood Weir and the dam to the west, assuming they go ahead, the taxpayer will have spent almost half a billion dollars for Queensland irrigators and Queensland towns to have less water than they have today—$500 million to have less storage capacity than we started with.

Mr Deputy Speaker Hogan, I know you are passionate about regional areas. I know you understand the importance of agriculture and jobs. I think you, like us, just want answers. This is not that difficult. All the Premier has to do is walk up to a microphone and tell us what the issue is. Our community deserves answers. It is taxpayers' funds that are being expended. Stop putting Sunwater out for the bus to run over it at every meeting and not allowing it to answer the questions. Get in the proper engineers and assessments and fix the dam wall, otherwise Paradise will be lost. I say to the Premier: what is the dam plan? Tell us what it is. Tell the community. They deserve to know. They have a right to know. It is our money and our economy and our future at stake.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 13:03