Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party, Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My understanding is that, if a private member doesn't jump up, I can seek the call. In the last remaining minutes, can I call out the hapless Premier Palaszczuk in Queensland, who is knocking down the Paradise Dam, in the member for Flynn's electorate, and who is taking jobs away from my local people in the future. They are taking away opportunity, and on what basis? Because they built the dam originally to a price and not to a standard.

The Queensland Labor government are taking away the agricultural future of our local people and our local kids. They are out there running rumours that it's the Commonwealth's fault. The Commonwealth doesn't own the dam, doesn't operate the dam and didn't decide to knock down the dam; that was solely a decision of Minister Lynham and the Premier of Queensland, Premier Palaszczuk. There is no-one else responsible. There is no-one else who has issued the contracts. There is no-one else who is out there literally knocking the wall down right now.

That is a 30 per cent reduction in storage capacity for that dam. It is over 100,000 megalitres. It will take away reliability, it will take away confidence, it will take away opportunity and it will take away growth, and it is certainly not the Commonwealth's fault. They have not come to us for support. They have not come to us to ask for financial support to repair or replace. The only organisation out there looking to keep the dam in place is the Queensland LNP: the local members, Stephen Bennett and David Batt; the local federal member, Ken O'Dowd; and, of course, Deb Frecklington, the Leader of the Opposition, who has committed to make safe, to restore, to replace, to put the dam back as it was and to return that capacity.

This is about local jobs. Where will all these jobs come from if we don't have the reliability from this dam, which was built for this purpose? We have agriculture, we have farmers and we have people who have committed tens of millions of dollars. Yet we find that the hapless premier continues to knock down the dam wall. It is simply unacceptable.

House adjourned at 20:00