March 25, 2022
Dear Editor,
In the Courier Mail and Townsville Bulletin, Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce said, ‘You’re never going to get the Greens, Mr Katter and a veritable clique of diverging views all happy and on the same page.[1]’
It’s a most extraordinary statement he makes. The Nationals leader says it is hard to please Bob Katter and the Greens. Well, he hasn’t pleased me with his Bradfield destroying version of Hells Gates Dam, so he’s obviously pleasing the Greens. I have always enjoyed an extremely good relationship with naturalists and conservationists, but the Greenies fall into another category altogether.
One minute Barnaby himself said the water is to go west,[2] now he’s saying it won’t go out west because he’s got to kotow to Greenies. Barnaby makes possibly the only truthful statement by the Federal Government on Hells Gates thus far.
The Nats did not get the money for Hells Gates. I got the $48m for it when I had the balance of power in late 2018 off the PM. It indicates the Nats utter ineffectiveness, that a small party was able to get the money to draw up the scheme, but they weren’t.
Their only contribution has been to destroy the Bradfield scheme. Hells Gates has only existed ever as Bradfield stage one. If you do it to destroy Bradfield by making the dam wall too low and don’t send the water west, then there is no logic in doing it.
Barnaby also says, “If it’s a choice between what the Townsville business community say, or what Bob Katter says, I’m going to roll with the business community.”
I’m pleased Barnaby Joyce wasn’t around when Franklin Roosevelt lifted America out of the Great Depression through his ‘New Deal’. Conservative politicians were responsible for the long-lasting Depression in Australia because they listened to the business community, instead of having the intellectual capacity to figure it out for themselves.
When you shoot your mouth off you want to know what you’re talking about. Townsville Enterprise doesn’t represent the business community of Townsville.
The Townsville Chamber of Commerce fought the battle which secured the reinsurance pool for North Queensland. Townsville Enterprise contributed nothing to the battle.
Townsville Enterprise contributed nothing to get the $48m for the Hells Gates Dam project, I did. They put a director in to handle the Hells Gates project, who refused to listen to locals, and according to the front page of the Townsville Bulletin, he was being investigated for fraud and embezzlement.[3]
The Revised Bradfield scheme was drawn up by Roy Stainkey (one of the largest sheep owners in Australia at the time), a university professor, and me. Further work was then done by the most experienced dam builders in the nation’s history.
Barnaby’s going to listen to TEL? But not the proponents of the Revised Bradfield Scheme?
I doubt there would be an owner-operator business in Townsville that says Townsville Enterprise represents the Townsville business community. The cost of becoming a member keeps the locals out of participating. It’s just the corporates who get a say.
[1] https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/barnaby-joyce-says-no-time-to-waste-on-bickering-over-56bn-hells-gate-dam/news-story/d98b5542b21a04bc9c476e5e77bb5593?fbclid=IwAR2YmDQG2wiLxZLbJqB6zzrY3sokw2QS5PAFJ-pFfAUufwSp1q7ad_voUDs
[2] https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/joyce/media-release/north-queensland-water-infrastructure-authority-shifts-north-help-take-water-west#:~:text=The%20Liberal%20and%20Nationals%20Government,deliver%20unprecedented%20growth%20and%20prosperity.
[3] https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/business/highranking-tel-exec-sacked-amid-credit-card-misuse-claims/news-story/73f28d644fb4c6c7884c3c05fb0b1a78