Newsroom

August 27, 2024

Peak economic development group Townsville Enterprise Limited (TEL) has demanded the acceleration of the hamstrung Big Rocks Weir after the Water Minister admitted to KAP Leader and Member for Traeger Robbie Katter that weirs had posed no cultural and environmental issues to Charters Towers.

In a Budget Estimates hearing, Mr Katter asked Water Minister Glenn Butcher if he was aware of any significant cultural negative environmental impacts from the 100-year-old Charters Towers weir.

Minister Butcher answered “no”.

Referring to the stalled Big Rocks Weir, Mr Katter asked the Water Minister, “Why are we here 100 years later when there is no discernible negative impact from that weir on the mighty Burdekin River – a massive river? We are talking about a 20,000 megalitre dam.”

Earlier this month, Townsville Enterprise Limited joined Mr Katter in supporting Charters Towers Regional Council’s (CTRC) recent decision to wipe its hands of the project after tirelessly jumping through bureaucratic hoops for several years only to be ordered to complete further studies.

“What we’re seeing is red tape and green tape everywhere … and we want to see what they’re doing about that, and we haven’t seen that answer,” TEL CEO Claudia Brumme-Smith told media.

Mr Katter also used Estimates to grill the Water Minister on his department’s appetite for true development in Queensland.

“Charters Towers cannot grow because they cannot get any water … where is the threshold, Minister, where the Government says, ‘We will be an enabler and try to help you and not just throw conditions on you like a hamster wheel and passively observe?’” Mr Katter asked.

Mr Katter also asked State Development Minister Grace Grace if she intended to look at the issue and acknowledge the big problem that after four years, a relatively small weir had not been able to progress.

Minister Grace answered that she wanted the weir to progress and had made a commitment to it.

Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter, who secured $28 million in federal funding for Big Rocks in 2018, also supported CTRC’s decision and vowed to leave no stone unturned in ensuring the project cleared federal bureaucracy.

“I’ll be putting pressure on Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to make sure that Brisbane cannot accuse Canberra of bogging down this vital project,” Mr Katter said.

Compounding the Member for Traeger’s frustration were further delays in the Hughenden Irrigation Project (HIPCo) and he used Estimates to seek answers, namely regarding the cancellation of the unallocated water tender, a review of the Gulf Water Plan, and a Regional Water Assessment.

“We have still only released 220,000 megalitres (of the Flinders River), of which only a quarter has actually been used,” Mr Katter told Minister Butcher.

“We are sitting there with HIPCo saying it is a 74,000 megalitre dam and here we are years later after $170 million has been spent and we are spending millions again and we seem no closer to any outcome.

“When will the Government start enabling and stop lumping conditions on and standing back and massively observing instead of trying to drive through?”

Photo: Robbie Katter MP at the Big Rocks site with John Brownson, Blair Knuth and Matt Bennetto from Charters Towers.