Water tops city’s needs, inquiry told
WATER security, high energy costs, insurance premiums and job opportunities are issues Townsville’s Mayor Jenny Hill says need to be fixed in the city.
Cr Hill addressed a Senate Committee inquiry into regional inequality in Australia yesterday about how to address inequality issues.
“Businesses need certainty that the city has long- term water security for them to invest in job creating projects,” Cr Hill said.
“I’m very pleased we now have bipartisan support for full federal funding of stage 2 of the city’s new water pipeline – which will extend the infrastructure down to the Clare Weir.
“This project will guarantee our city’s water supply for the next 50 years or more so I’d like to thank the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader for their commitments to fully fund stage 2 of the pipeline.”
High energy costs, rising insurance premiums and creating job opportunities to decrease the unemployment rate were raised at the inquiry by Cr Hill.
“The city’s economy has started to turn a corner but there’s no doubt we, as a community, suffer from high energy costs and soaring insurance premiums,” she said.
“Any reforms that could be done by the Federal Government to ease the cost burden for local businesses and families would be welcome relief for our community.”
In its inquiry submission, the council said the high energy cost was due in “significant part” to federal and state governments not balancing competing priorities of competition, security, reliability and emissions targets with adequate regard to the impact on affordability and business viability.
A shocking revelation showing the issue of power prices was included in the council’s submission.
“North Queensland’s largest industrial power user, Sun Metals, have noted that their power costs ( about $ 50- 60 million per annum) have tripled over the last 15 years, and the additional costs associated with energy and its transmission are impacting their com- petitiveness,” the submission reads.
The CopperString 2.0 project, a transmission line to connect the North West Minerals Province to the east coast grid, is an idea touted as being one to create jobs.
Founder John O’Brien said there was strong interest in CopperString from major industrial businesses across the Townsville to Mount Isa corridor.
“CopperString is more than an electricity project, it is an economic development strategy for northern Queensland,” he said.
“CopperString is about increasing export of value- added minerals products through the Townsville Port and all the jobs growth in the industrial sector and support industries it will bring with it.”