Queensland election: dam it as LNP goes to water for votes

Five regional Queensland water projects valued at a collective $1.3bn would be built by an LNP government.

LNP leader Tim Nicholls.

Five regional Queensland water projects valued at a collective $1.3 billion would be built by a Liberal National Party government, under an election commitment to be announced today.

To deliver the state’s first new dams in a decade, the LNP would establish a regionally based Queensland dam company, similar to the Snowy Mountains ­Hydroelectric Authority, which oversaw the nation’s largest ­engineering project.

LNP leader Tim Nicholls has begun campaigning in north Queensland, where he will ­announce $160 million in new funding to get work on the five projects flowing.

The Turnbull government is expected to offer funding, the biggest show of support from the Canberra conservatives since the campaign began.

Mr Nicholls has pledged the LNP would see the projects through if elected on November 25. The LNP would give the Rookwood Weir on the Fitzroy River southwest of Rockhampton the green light, matching the federal government’s $130m to complete stage one of the 65,400 megalitre project.

Three of the projects — Urannah Dam west of Mackay, Nullinga Dam west of Cairns, and the Burdekin Falls Dam, southwest of Ayr — will each be given $10m towards environmental impact studies. The federal government is understood to be committing the same amount, with Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan expected to make an announcement today.

Raising the wall of the Burdekin Falls Dam by 2m, a project suggested more than 20 years ago, will increase capacity by 590 gigalitres to 2446GL.

Mr Nicholls will use his trip to north Queensland to announce funding as he targets Labor seats under threat from the LNP and One Nation.

“Labor hates dams and refuses to progress them,” Mr Nicholls said yesterday. “Our plan will see the first dams built in regional Queensland in more than a decade. We will fund and complete the planning and environmental impact studies for Urannah, Nullinga and the Burdekin Falls Dam projects to get them shovel-ready.

“We will build the Rookwood Weir and once the EIS and feasibility study for Urannah is finished, we will build it too. This is our plan for water security in Queensland. These projects have stalled for too long under Annastacia Palaszczuk, who is captured by green groups.”

The LNP has previously committed $225m to upgrade the Haughton Channel and duplicate the pipeline from the Burdekin Falls Dam to Ross River Dam, Townsville’s main water supply. Labor has also committed to the project, which would allow up to 356ML of water to be pumped from the larger Burdekin Falls Dam each day.

Water security is a hot topic in the north, especially in Townsville, where community groups have sprung up in the place of perceived political inaction over many years.

LNP deputy leader Deb Frecklington said a Queensland dam company would be Queensland’s version of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority. “It will allow for investment in our dams by the federal government, which has billions of dollars ready and available for dams and water infrastructure. We need to get our share,” Ms Frecklington said.

LNP agriculture spokesman Dale Last said the last dam to be built in regional Queensland was Paradise Dam near Bundaberg more than 12 years ago.