Newsroom

November 26, 2021

The future of Queensland is in mining and connecting the North West Minerals Province to the east-coast electricity grid will make or break billions of dollars’ worth of economic development, Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has said.

Mr Katter said the release of new economic analysis indicating the CopperString 2.0 project would generate 16 times the wealth of Brisbane’s 2032 Olympics – an incredible $132 billion by 2050 – made the project the Queensland’s most important.

He is now calling on the State and Federal Government to either further invest in, or commit to building themselves, the nation-building transmission line that would connect the Mount Isa region to the grid in Townsville.

“We need to stop hanging our hats on the money-absorbing 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games; Queensland’s future will be built on the back of minerals and other mining exports,” Mr Katter said.

“The Government has thrown some cash at the project, which has been certainly appreciated, but it stills needs a big push.

“Personally, I would love the see the people of Queensland own and profit from the transmission line and would like to see it built by the State, but if CopperString continues down the private path then Brisbane and Canberra need to do everything they can to deliver it.”

This week the project’s proponents, CuString, released updated economic modelling that shows the $1.8 billion project would generate an extra $132 billion in mining activity by 2050.[1]

In comparison, the State Government’s analysis showed the economic benefits from the Games between 2022 and 2042 would be $8.1 billion.

The staging of the Games, including infrastructure works, is likely to cost Queensland and Australian taxpayers double this amount.

The State’s economy continues to be underpinned by the resources sector, with the Queensland Resources Council posting a record $84.3 billion contribution to the Queensland economy in 2020-21, up almost $2 billion on the previous period.[2]

The resources sector is the number one contributor to the Queensland economy and the State’s largest export industry.

It also supports the employment of 423,000 people, equating to one in six jobs in total.