They’ve bumped Burdekin, says MP

BURDEKIN MP Dale Last has accused the state government of giving up on raising the Burdekin Falls Dam.

In 2016, Building Queensland said the next step in raising the walls would be a business case, but Mr Last said it had now been four years.

At the June sitting of Queensland parliament, Mr Last asked Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Minister Anthony Lynham what funding was allocated for the project and when the business case would be finished.

Dr Lynham replied that the raising and dam improvements were being undertaken as a combined business case.

“A combined business case will provide a comprehensive and holistic assessment of all proposed structural changes to the dam,” he said.

Dr Lynham added Sunwater’s budget for the business case, including an environmental-impact statement and preliminary design work was $19.7m, which did not include detailed designs or construction works. It had been allocated $5.8m for the raising project and a further $5.891m for the improvements project for the 2020-21 financial year. The EIS is expected to be completed in 2023.

But Mr Last said this was not good enough. “All of North Queensland now knows that the Labor government has given up on the raising of the Burdekin Falls Dam,” he said.

“The reality is that this government wants us to wait at least another three years before a decision will even be made. There was a commitment given before the 2017 election to install hydro-electricity on the Burdekin Falls Dam and that money has now been moved elsewhere.”