New Bradfield Scheme report still being kept under wraps

Nearly a year after a report on a transformative irrigation scheme was due to be handed to the government, it remains under wraps.

The State Government is still sitting on a long-awaited report into the viability of a new Bradfield Scheme – and is refusing to say when it was received or when it will be released.

The report was due to be handed to the government last September 2021, but in March it blamed the pandemic for the delay.

Then this week, Water Minister Glenn Butcher blamed the former federal government for the further delay, saying its focus on the election pushed back discussions.

“The government is finalising its review and response to the report and its recommendations and these documents will be out shortly,” he said.

“The former federal government had previously expressed a desire to work with Queensland (on) several water matters, including this one.

“Unfortunately, due to the former federal government’s focus on the election campaign, these discussions were delayed.”

Water Minister Glenn Butcher

Opposition water spokeswoman Deb Frecklington claimed the government didn’t understand water security.

“To take it off the front page of the paper they announced they were going to do an independent report,” she said.

“They’ve had the independent report for months, so what is in it? What did it recommend?”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced ahead of the 2020 state election, and following an announcement by the Opposition, that her government was working on a scoping study, with an independent panel to probe the scheme’s financial, economic, environmental, social and technical viability.

It’s not known when that report went to government although Mr Butcher suggested in late March that he had it then.

“This is an incredibly detailed and comprehensive piece of work, that requires thorough consideration,” he said this week.

“The Palaszczuk government has a strong record of investment in water infrastructure and planning.”

The original Bradfield Scheme, first mooted by prominent engineer John Bradfield during the 1930s, involved diverting water from the upper Tully, Herbert and Burdekin rivers inland using tunnels, dams and pumps to create a huge irrigation area in Central Queensland.

A concept map of the New Bradfield Scheme