Premier ‘scrambling’ with no detail on multibillion-dollar desal plan

Water bills could rise across South East Queensland to fund the government’s desalination plant, with the government yet to determine key details about the major project.

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Water bills could rise across South East Queensland to fund Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s multibillion-dollar desalination plant, with the government now “scrambling” to determine key details about the major project.

The Premier revealed on Tuesday a second desalination plant, thought to cost between $4bn and $8bn, would be build north of Brisbane, while the existing Gold Coast plant would receive an expansion.

Key details about the major announcement remain unknown, however, with Ms Palaszczuk and Water Minister Glenn Butcher unable to say where the desalination plant would be built, how it would be funded and how much water it would provide to the grid.

Ms Palaszczuk said the cost and location would only be determined when a detailed business case was finalised.

A 15 per cent increase to the water bills of three million South East Queensland residents could fund construction of the plant, but Mr Butcher said it was too early to speculate.

He said the project would be operational in 2035 and the question whether bills would rise depended how big the plant needs to be.

“It’s hard to make any assumptions now,” he said.

The Tugun desalination plant helped the region during the millennium drought and last year’s flooding.

The desalination plant is tipped to be built in the Sunshine Coast or Moreton Bay council area, with Ms Palaszczuk flagging the possibility of it being located in Kawana.

“We’re a long way from pinpointing exactly where it is, but that is one option,” she said.

The SEQ Water 30-year strategy released on Tuesday flags an uncosted expansion of the Gold Coast Desalination Plant and the feasibility of connecting supply from the Logan River, including Wyaralong Dam, to the water grid.

Those two projects would be a “priority next year in the budget”, Ms Palaszczuk said.

The existing desalination plant at Tugun can produce 43 of the 300 gigalitres of water needed to service southeast Queensland each year – however it produced just 7310 megalitres last financial year.

It cost $1.2bn in 2009 when then-Premier Peter Beattie rushed to build the $9bn southeast Queensland water grid – costs the state’s Auditor-General later said “casts doubt on their value for money”.

Opposition water spokeswoman Deb Frecklington questioned the lack of detail in the water strategy.

“There’s no plan, there’s no budget and obviously they’re scrambling for an announcement,” she said

“There is no detail and I’m very concerned for the communities who have this hanging over their heads … the rumours are swirling around.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in parliament on Tuesday. Picture: Tertius Pickard/NCA NewsWire

The Western Corridor Recycled Water scheme will be expanded to include the agriculture and growing hydrogen industries, but Ms Palaszczuk and Mr Butcher would not be drawn on whether wastewater should be used in households at a lower cost than expanding desalination.

“It’s not a case of one or the other, we’ll need both,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Ms Palaszczuk, an advocate for desalination over recycled water, said the existing Western Corridor Recycled Water scheme would “remain as an insurance policy” during severe drought when dam levels fell below 40 per cent.

City of Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery said he was appalled by plans for a desalination plant, and instead called for the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme, “currently gathering dust”, to be fully utilised.

“Any new spend is a waste of money when we have a system in place and key infrastructure projects crying out for funding,” he said.

“Cities worldwide including London, Singapore and Los Angeles commonly use wastewater and most residents of Australian cities are also drinking some treated wastewater.

“Is the government just too lazy to educate people about the benefits of it?

“With cost-of-living pressures, this is yet another cost the Government will need to push on to mums and dads and now is just not the time.”

Mr Flannery said the desalination proposal was history repeating itself.

“They’re just not planning ahead – it’s another stalling tactic wrapped up in yet another business case,” he said.

“This desal distraction is not a well thought through plan and is ultimately just delaying the conversation about recycled water that needs to be had with the community.”