Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for his answer. Could I ask him to confirm that it is not compulsory for the federal government to follow that bilateral agreement process if the minister believes that a full public inquiry is necessary? Acknowledging, as he has said, that this is a Queensland government decision and a Queensland government owned and constructed process, how can people have confidence in an assessment process accredited and run by a state government that has said that it is intending to build these dams no matter what? I also ask the minister whether he was aware that, when the Queensland government submitted the Cedar Grove Weir on the Logan River—the same river system as the proposed Wyaralong dam—earlier this year, they stated that that the Wyaralong dam may only be considered in the year 2060, and they did not mention the other proposed Tilleys Bridge dam at the time and said there were no other relevant and interdependent developments? Given this sort of misleading material provided by the Queensland government in past applications, how can we have confidence in any role they have in any future developments?