Funding blow for bush
Plea for clarity on region’s water security
THE October federal budget saw our region lose $5.4bn for Hells Gates Dam and an additional $1.7bn for industry development in our region.
As the pressure from the community increased on the new Federal Government, a letter was reported in The Australian sent by our own Queensland Water Minister to the Albanese Government advising against Hells Gates Dam. A project that would have provided water security and economic prosperity for North Queensland, plus created 10,000 construction jobs and thousands of ongoing jobs for our region. Our region’s focus is aligned with State and Federal Government’s policy agenda to decarbonise and manufacture green goods. Where in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane can you generate 33GW of green energy, mine the green metals of the future, grow the food the world needs for geopolitical stability and produce millions of tonnes of hydrogen to help decarbonise the world? The answer is you can’t, which is why the focus needs to be on North and North West Queensland where this potential is.
We need to know the gov
ernment’s plan for North Queensland’s water security for long-term growth in population and existing and new industries such as renewables. The Burdekin Dam wall raising by two metres will not enable this region to grow.
On my recent green energy investor mission to South Korea, Korean investors pointed out the lack of water and transmission infrastructure, such as Copperstring, in our region as well as the lack of incentive schemes compared to other countries.
To produce hydrogen, we need water and cheap renewable energy – we have both in abundance in North Queensland, but we need the government to help harness this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity or we will miss out on billions of dollars of private sector investment.
Water infrastructure and transmission lines are government-owned assets. We need State and Federal investment to allow private investment to flow, to create new industries, like hydrogen, and create wealth in our region. In turn, this will help the government to reinvest in social infrastructure like our hospital system, childcare and NDIS.
It’s our time to take centre stage globally because we have all the ingredients for success.
We need to stand together and make our voices heard in Brisbane and Canberra. We need to see enabling investment now to unlock the North.