Together, we must demand dams

I HAVE been reading the letters in Voice of the North regarding dams, water supply and which would be best for North Queensland and Australia as a whole.

As a councillor on the Thuringowa Council for 20 years, I know that there is a great deal of expert knowledge in the North on what is needed. Tony Manning was a person who has a great wealth of intellectual knowledge and expertise on the water and was an adviser for the period I was in council. This knowledge should be used.

The politicians can have as many bureaucrats advising them but first-hand local knowledge and expertise is what has made this country.

Based on the bureaucrats advice we have become a “selffulfilling prophecy” we demand too little too late and that’s Just what we get “too little too late”.

The people of the East Coast of Australia should thump the table and demand the lot: increase the Burdekin Dam wall, Build Hells Gate Dam and the Bradfield Scheme now.

COVID-19 has proved we can do it . We have the will.

I’m not a great fan of Dan Andrews (Vic Premier), but do you think he would be grateful and settle for crumbs the governments give us.

Hells Gate Dam and the Bradfield Scheme will do for the East Coast of Australia what the Ord River Scheme has done for North Western Australia

The Bradfield Scheme and the Hells Gate Dam are both needed to open the North, make it prosperous and secure water for the future.

The point I wish to make is that we need to increase Burdekin Dam wall and the pipeline now. What we don’t need is more excuses and politics being played by governments and nothing being done.

We should not settle for the crumbs the Labor government decides to allocate us.

It’s about time everyone came together, stopped pushing their own barrows and tell the federal and state governments in a united voice we want actual physical infrastructure now, not money spent on task forces, studies, analysis, reports, options, submission, deals, agreements.

Divided we get nothing. When we agree we need all of the above, that is what the politicians should be demanding for the North.

SANDRA CHESNEY, Jensen.