David Crisafulli announces LNP 10-year dam pledge

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has vowed the LNP can build a dam in southeast Queensland in a decade.

Queensland Opposition leader David Crisafulli during a press conference at Metricon stadium on Sunday. Picture: Tertius Pickard

The LNP can build a dam in southeast Queensland in a decade, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has said as he promised to have a new major water source in the region by 2035.

It comes as Mr Crisafulli also categorically ruled out a dam in Mary Valley, where the highly controversial failed Traveston Dam was set to be built.

A dam is on the cards for southeast Queensland under an LNP water plan that has categorically ruled out building new desalination plants or recycled water schemes.

But where it will be located won’t be known until the SEQ regional water plan - along with 22 others across the state - is reviewed within the first term of an LNP government,

Mr Crisafulli said reviewing the plans would allow “the best minds to come together and map out water security for the southeast” and identify opportunities of agriculture and industry in the regions.

The latest SEQ water plan, released by the government in 2023, warned the region needed a new drinking water source by 2035 amid a population boom.

Mr Crisafulli signalled that the LNP could get a dam done in time.

“The only way that Queensland couldn’t build a dam in a decade is if a damn bad government is re-elected,” he said.

“In terms of other major water supply, including a future for SEQ, of course, that will be delivered in the timeline that’s been outlined.”

Seqwater, in the 2023 plan, warned changing rainfall patterns due to climate change meant less reliable supply from existing dams in the future.

“Climate change may materially reduce the volume of water that is available from the system of existing bulk water sources,” the report stated.

“It is therefore prudent to start planning now for a new major enhancement, particularly given climate change might mean SEQ is not able to rely on dams as much in the future.”

But Mr Crisafulli argued the severity of huge downpours and prolonged drought meant “dams make more sense now than ever”.

The site where Traveston Crossing Dam was planned to be built. Picture: Supplied

A Newman-era flood mitigation study flagged two possible dams sites in the southeast - on the Brisbane River upstream of Linville and on the Lower Warrill Creek near Willowbank.

Mr Crisafulli said the feasibility of the two sites would be part of the SEQ water plan review.

He categorically ruled out building a dam in the Mary Valley.

“If it wasn’t for the LNP, the Labor Party would have damned the Mary Valley and damned them to an existence where they were underwater,” he said.

Independent MP for Noosa Sandy Bolton had called on the LNP to rule out a “Traveston Dam 2.0” after the announcement of a new dam in the southeast without a location made her community “extremely concerned”.

Originally published as David Crisafulli announces LNP 10-year dam pledge