Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

To move:

That the Senate—

(a)   notes that:

(i)   water has been cascading over the Burdekin Falls Dam spillway for a record breaking 313 days since 6 October 2010,

(ii)   the dam is currently holding 1.87 million mega litres of water which in volume equates to 3.3 Sydney harbours,

(iii)   the dam’s catchment of 130 000 square kilometres is equal to the size of Victoria,

(iv)   since October 2010, some 26 960 908 mega litres of water has passed over the spillway of the dam, equivalent to approximately 53 Sydney harbours, and

(v)   Commonwealth funding for the construction of the dam was first committed in the 1982-83 budget of the then Fraser Government; and

(b)   congratulates those in the Federal Government and Queensland Government who, since the time of that first funding had the foresight and fortitude to ensure the completion of the mighty Burdekin Falls Dam and the creation of the Burdekin River Irrigation Area.