Political scientist warns of Haughton Pipeline election danger
The future of the Haughton Pipeline could be delayed even further, should the state government go into caretaker mode before it comes to a funding resolution with the federal government, a political scientist has warned.
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THE future of the Haughton Pipeline could be delayed even further, should the state government go into caretaker mode before it comes to a funding resolution with the federal government, a political scientist has warned.
The state government remains adamant it will not sign off on $195 million in federal government funding to be handed over to Townsville City Council to build Stage 2 of Haughton Pipeline unless the project is excluded from Queensland’s GST allocation.
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James Cook University political scientist Dr Maxine Newlands warned neither the federal LNP nor state Labor was benefiting politically from the stalemate, although residents would suffer if a decision wasn’t made before August 5 when the state goes into caretaker mode for the upcoming election.
Dr Newlands said water security had always been a major political issue in the North, and it was “no surprise” that it continued to be a hot potato.
Her comments come after Townsville’s three state politicians and federal Herbert MP Phillip Thompson traded barbs after the former failed to turn up for a meeting last week to help smooth over the issue.
“One doesn’t have the upper hand over the other at the moment,” Dr Newlands said.
“It’s a low-hanging fruit, but the fact it is on the agenda means it is important, and there’s nothing else that’s moved forward so I can see it being an issue, particularly when you see Western Australia facing its own drought.
“If it goes into caretaker mode, then that’s a problem, because it would mean months and months of delay and new contracts depending on who wins.”
Townsville MP Scott Stewart accused Mr Thompson of being “deceptive to voters’’ and “playing politics with people’s lives” after the Herbert MP blasted the Labor MPs for “not turning up to a meeting”.
Mr Stewart said it was simply a matter of being a scheduling conflict, which was notified ahead of time and came down to the state government’s Treasury and Natural Resources offices’ availability.
He admitted that to the average voter it was hard to understand the complexities of how the GST worked, and that could be a danger point when it came to the October election.
“It was a scheduling conflict and not a decision made by us,” Mr Stewart said. “For us it was more about being able to put forward Townsville’s position and articulate how this would be able to create these jobs.
“It was about working with the offices. There was no specific strategy, but it was around presenting our case, and we’ve got to do everything we can to get this over the line.”
Originally published as Political scientist warns of Haughton Pipeline election danger