Taxpayers fund $2.8m ad campaign for uncosted, unapproved pumped hydro plan

Queensland taxpayers are funding a public relations blitz to promote Premier Steven Miles’s uncosted pumped hydro plan and cost of living handouts ahead of October’s state election.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles. Picture: John Gass

Queensland taxpayers are funding a multimillion-dollar public relations blitz to promote Premier Steven Miles’s uncosted pumped hydro plan and cost-of-living handouts ahead of October’s state election.

A $2.78m marketing splurge to sell two unapproved pumped hydro projects is one of a series of taxpayer-funded campaigns to platform Labor’s key election commitments before its self-­imposed advertising freeze begins this month.

Government-owned power company Queensland Hydro has already spent $1.1m this financial year for an advertising campaign – including $21,842 through social media channels – with another $1.28m allocated to spruik pumped hydro energy storage as the “key to our clean energy future”.

The third-term Labor government is relying on the two proposed pumped hydro projects to enable the shutdown of five state-owned coal-fired power plants and meet its legislated renewable and emission reduction targets in the next decade.

The projects are Labor’s largest election commitments, but both are waiting on key government approvals. No business case has been completed for the Pioneer-­Burdekin scheme, west of Mackay, while the $14.2bn Borumba project, near Gympie, is still undergoing a detailed environmental impact statement process.

Sources have told The Australian that public servants have been working on finding alternative sites, with the Liberal National Party vowing to scrap Pioneer-Burdekin if it wins the election.

Treasurer Cameron Dick ordered a freeze on government advertising from August, other than public safety and recruitment campaigns, as part of a bid to claw back $3bn in savings over the next four years.

Analysis of Meta’s spending tracker, which records advertising spends through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, reveals the Queensland government spent $73,000 on ads in the past month including to promote its crime plan, 50c public transport fares, energy rebates and pumped hydro.

Taxpayers sponsored $22,411 worth of ads on Mr Miles’s ­personal-branded pages in June, touting cost of living relief and infrastructure builds.

In one paid social media ad, Mr Miles pledged the Renewable Energy and Jobs Plan would “lower household power prices, and create more than 140,000 good secure jobs for Queenslanders”.

The business case and final state government investment decision for Pioneer Burdekin – touted as the world’s biggest pumped hydro project – has been delayed until after the election with financial, engineering and environmental assessments still under way.

The project would require compulsory resumption of at least 50 cattle and cane properties, and could impact platypus habitat.

Initially priced at $12bn, Energy Department director-general Paul Martyn confirmed last week that Pioneer-Burdekin could cost up to $24bn.

The more advanced Borumba project, in the Mary River Basin, will flood 17km of potential habitat for the critically endangered white-throated snapping turtle and could destroy more than 1000ha of koala habitat.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek in December declared Borumba a “controlled ­action” – requiring thorough departmental scrutiny – under environmental protection legislation.

Senior Queensland Hydro executives were due to travel to the Borumba site this week to commence in-depth community consultation. The project is expected to employ 2360 full time equivalents during construction and 30 FTEs when it is becomes operational.

Both Borumba and Pioneer-Burdekin are critical to the state government’s legislated goal of reaching 80 per cent renewable energy by 2035 and slashing carbon emissions by 75 per cent.