Scott Morrison brings $200m water security plan to north QLD
PRIME Minister Scott Morrison tours Queensland this week, and will be bringing a big-spending promise to voters in the state’s far north.
QLD Politics
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A $200 MILLION “spirit-lifting” plan to bring pride, jobs and water security in Townsville will be unveiled today by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Fearing the state’s regional capital city could run out of drinking water and further push its 200,000 residents on to harsher water restrictions, Mr Morrison will reveal a blueprint to build a pipeline that will provide water certainty for at least the next 20 years.
The announcement will be part of a four-day “Backing Queenslanders” blitz.
The infrastructure investment is being billed as more than water security, but part of a plan to protect jobs, grow the economy but to also help Townsville dump its nickname of “Brownsville”.
It is also a Coalition fightback for the seat of Herbert – the nation’s most marginal – which was lost to Labor in 2016.
Residents in Townsville are on level 2 water restrictions and have been forced to reduce irrigation by 24 per cent and cannot water their gardens between 9am and 4pm.
Under Townsville’s City Deal, announced by the Coalition in 2016, a Townsville Water Security Taskforce was set up.
Its final report, provided to Mr Morrison and the State Government last month, recommended the continued Haughton pipeline duplication, plus stage 2, which includes building a second pipeline that extends the new pipeline to the Burdekin River.
Townsville’s water supply is mainly drawn from the Ross River Dam which, in times of drought, is supplemented by water pumped from the Burdekin River by a pipeline along the Haughton irrigation channel.
Under Mr Morrison’s plan, which aims to show north Queenslanders he is more than just a city prime minister, a $5 million business case will be done first, to protect ratepayers from unnecessary spikes in water bills and ensure the best bang for taxpayer buck.
The Government would then fund up to $195 million for the vital infrastructure.
Mr Morrison, who arrives in Brisbane today and will take his blue ScoMo Express to Townsville, said his Government was “backing Queenslanders in north Queensland”.
“Last time I was in Townsville to announce our investment in the port, I listened carefully to the issues being raised about Townsville’s long-term water supply,” he told The Sunday Mail.
“We are taking decisive action to secure Townsville’s water supply for decades to come – nothing is more important for a growing city.
“More water means more jobs in the short and long term.”
Federal Member for Dawson George Christensen, whose electorate includes four urban centres in Townsville, said the city’s water crisis had been deflating and job-destroying.
“It’s always been called Brownsville but when that (new water) comes through, that nickname will be thrown out the window,” he said.
“Some of the lawns (in Townsville) are brown or dead. When people have dead front lawns or their gardens are dying, people’s spirits go down.
“Landscaping and lawnmowing businesses have just packed up.”
Mr Christensen said a long-term lack of water infrastructure investment had exacerbated other challenges in Townsville.
“There has been a lack of investment and it’s possible (the lack of water is) why we have a high and stubborn unemployment rate,” he said.
“If we get any growth in residential, industry or commercial, this needs to be done.
“About 10 minutes’ drive from the city centre at a new development, Eliot Springs, they are talking about thousands of homes in the next few years.”
Mr Christensen said the new water plan would create hundreds of jobs.
Last year Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said a Labor government would stump up $100 million for water solutions in Townsville, about half of what is required for a second pipeline.
Proposed extension (Stage 2)
The proposed Haughton pipeline extension would extend the pipeline to the Burdekin River at a cost of about $191 million.
The final Townsville Water Security Taskforce report recommended:
* Extending a new 1800mm diameter pipeline from the Haughton Pipeline to Clare
* Building a new dedicated 364Ml/day pump station at Clare
* Installing a battery-ready 6.8MW solar array for the new pump station
* Transferring Townsville City Council’s 364Ml/day share of the SunWater Clare pump capacity and channel system water allocation to irrigation
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