Anning right on water

IN answer to Peter J. Smith’s very clear and direct question, “Where does Senator Anning stand”, one must look at the statements made by Senator Anning over the past few months.

Senator Fraser Anning has often stated that his time as a senator may be short and in that time he wishes to achieve at least one thing in North Queensland: water security.

With this very laudable position in mind, one must then consider what this means for the majority of NQ people and what projects would most quickly and economically achieve this very worthwhile goal.

The obvious solution to this question revolves around the existing Burdekin Falls Dam and the designed 14.6m Stage 2 along with the 500MW hydro power station.

An extension of this BFDS plan is obviously a gravity- fed pipeline from the BFDS to Townsville.

This plan serves the most people in NQ and extends water across the Townsville Plain and Upper Haughton as well as supplying clean green electricity.

Further extension of the water system south toward Bowen would open up a further 200,000 ha for horticultural cropping.

The Burdekin, being already half completed, is the obvious answer to Mr Smith’s question.

The Hells Gates Dam, a project of stupendous proportions, that can hardly be appreciated, even when one drives across the 4600sq km proposed lake bottom, is a project for the future.

Brilliant in conception and a nation- building project that will double the NQ population and increase our economy dramatically, this project is at least 20 years away.

The BFDS is a project for today and can readily be achieved within the existing federal budget for NAIF.

Senator Anning, being a