LNP dismantles truth telling inquiry, pumped hydro mega project

Within days of taking power the LNP has dismantled key energy and First Nations reforms championed by the former Labor regime.

Premier David Crisafulli has confirmed that key Labor projects will not proceed. Picture: Richard Walker

• Editor’s view: Premier sets tone

Days after taking power, Queensland’s LNP government has dismantled key energy and First Nations reforms championed by the former Labor regime.

Premier David Crisafulli and his deputy Jarrod Bleijie on Thursday confirmed all work had stopped on the Pioneer Burdekin Pumped Hydro project west of Mackay.

All further hearings of the First Nations Truth Telling and Healing Inquiry had also been halted.

It comes as the first LNP cabinet in nearly a decade prepares to be sworn in on Friday, with the government yet to reveal how it has opted to structure the state’s departments.

Mr Crisafulli confirmed the Truth Telling and Healing Inquiry’s hearing scheduled for December on Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) would not go ahead.

“We won’t be allowing those to go ahead, but it will be done with respect and decency,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s anyone under any illusions about the fact that we’re not continuing that process.”

But Truth Telling and Healing Inquiry chair Joshua Creamer confirmed he was informed of Mr Crisafulli’s intentions to cancel the December hearings through the media.

His team were set to head to Stradbroke Island on Friday, but that has since been called off.

“I’ve had no contract with the Premier, the government or even the department regarding the ongoing of the inquiry,” Mr Creamer said.

“He is currently the Treaty Minister at the moment who I report to under the Act.

Premier David Crisafulli visits the family of Ipswich stabbing victim Vyleen White on Thursday. Picture: Richard Walker

“I’ll advise the team to pause all of that work.

“Even though we haven’t been given official direction, the intention of the government is pretty clear. It would be foolish to continue the work we had planned this week.”

Meanwhile, Mr Bleijie confirmed he would be writing to all 57 landholders in the Netherdale and Dalrymple townships west of Mackay that had sold their properties to Queensland Hydro to make way for the controversial 5GW Pioneer Burdekin pumped hydro project.

He said the government would be guided by what those landholders would like to do moving forward.

“I have asked the department and Queensland Hydro to, two days ago, stop any progress on that project, which they have done,” Mr Bleijie said.

“Labor’s hydro hoax, gone-ski.”

The 5GW pumped hydro project was the jewel in the crown of the Labor government’s renewable energy transition plan.

The LNP has repeatedly said it will support smaller pumped hydro projects — including the 2.4GW Borumba Pumped Hydro — instead but has not yet revealed where or when those facilities would be built.

A spokesman for the Save Eungella community group — which had been opposed to the project’s location — said there was a feeling of freedom now the project was no longer looming over the area.

“A huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders,” he said.

DOING IT FOR VYLEEN

The husband of slain Ipswich grandmother Vyleen White has endorsed the newly elected LNP government’s move to install harsher sentences for the state’s worse youth offenders.

Victor White said he was representing his wife and all other victims of the state’s youth crime crisis in standing behind the LNP’s “Adult Crime, Adult Time” laws.

“I hope things will work out in the future, with our attempt on changing the laws,” he said.

Mr Crisafulli confirmed parliament would return – with the LNP at the helm for the first time in nearly a decade – for three days starting November 26 and again from December 10.

“We’ve directed the drafting office to begin work on the Making Queensland Safer Laws,” he said.

“And just to unpack a few things, there are five elements of that first wave, starting with the minimum mandatories for murder, but also lifting the base threshold for break and enters and indeed of motor vehicle theft.

“We will also be constituting a body to look at further reviews. We have made a commitment to Queenslanders that those elements will be law by Christmas.”