Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

As I said in my answer to the first question, it would create thousands of jobs. In the Fitzroy area, where this dam is, jobs fell by 10,000 last year because there have been tough economic times. That's why we want to create jobs. That's why we want to build projects like this. That's why we're behind projects like this. But it's also a very important project to drought-proof Central Queensland. A study by the Gladstone Area Water Board released late last year showed that Rockhampton itself, a major city in Central Queensland, could run out of water from just one failed wet season. If that were to happen, water would need to be trucked up from Gladstone. Six hundred B-doubles would have to be engaged to do that. It would cost nearly $500 million. There's a question mark whether it would be technically feasible. That's why we need to act now, to avoid that circumstance. We need to get the Queensland Labor government to get acting so we avoid the worst happening in Central Queensland.