November 6, 2024
Rather than chasing a pipedream to ‘save the environment’, the new Queensland Government has the chance to immediately turn the bureaucratic tide against building new dams in Queensland - to add value to Queensland, not take it away, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader, and Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter has said.
“The whole concept of ‘pumped hydro’ is a clever tactic to bamboozle the public that power can be renewably generated, and that it won’t hurt our hip pocket,” the KAP leader said.
“Queensland still could harness our natural resources for the benefit of the whole state, not just the inner-city concrete jungle dwellers who want to sleep at night knowing they did something to ‘save the planet’.
“Water is life, and it’s the missing ingredient to developing North Queensland.
“HIPCo for example - thoroughly planned and costed – would develop Hughenden and the surrounding areas, generating wealth for all Queenslanders as well as cementing our food security. But while the boffins are looking at multi-billion dollar pumped hydro dams, they say no to rural Queensland.
“Tens of billions of dollars to dam, then pump water (which actually uses power), all to perpetuate the dream that we can have ‘cheap’ power. These dams, just like commuter tunnels and the Olympics, do absolutely nothing to build Queensland. All they do is spend the wealth that we generate,” Mr Katter said.
The KAP leader congratulated the Crisafulli government’s scrapping of the wasteful and rushed Pioneer-Burdekin project but urged the LNP to also come to their senses on the emissions targets they agreed to in the last parliament.
“I encourage the new premier and his government to open their eyes to the potential that this state has, especially North Queensland, and reign in the belligerent Brisbane departments. Every year, our mighty Northern rivers carry millions of megalitres out to sea, with Queenslanders unable to benefit from it”, the KAP leader said.
“I look forward to strongly advocating for the future of North Queensland and the key enabling projects that will make this happen to the new government,” Mr Katter said.