A long road map for our underdeveloped north

Soaring electricity prices have driven high levels of voter discontent over cost-of-living pressures during a time of low wages growth. Scott Morrison, having come to the prime ministership as the result of leadership turmoil generated by another climate and energy policy showdown, is acutely aware of the need to deliver lower power prices rather than compromise them by chasing climate gestures. Yet there have been warnings that poor priorities in infrastructure planning could result in similar upward pressure on water costs and supplies. It is another example of how governments — state and federal, Liberal and Labor — have too often failed to deliver on their core tasks. The Prime Minister will do well in the short period between now and the next election if he can demonstrate that he understands the crucial need to get these basics right.

An Infrastructure Australia report last year warned that poor regulation and planning in the urban water sector could see annual water rates double over the next two decades. In 2010 the Wyaralong Dam was opened in southeast Queensland but before that the last major dam built for supplying urban areas was Victoria’s Thomson Dam in 1982. Sydney’s Warragamba Dam was completed in 1960 and the region’s population has more than doubled since then. Major dam projects have been thwarted by protesters in NSW’s Hunter Valley and Shoalhaven, on Victoria’s Mitchell River and at Traveston Crossing north of Brisbane. Instead, arguing climate change might mean new dams may not be filled anyway, state governments have spent upwards of $11 billion on desalination plants in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia, where they have been mothballed most of the time (the Queensland and Victorian desal plants were damaged by floods). The cost of building and maintaining these plants has added to water costs, as will future infrastructure upgrades. Water and electricity might not mix but these crucial public utility sectors have suffered from a similar level of poor governance and planning.

Let us hope the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment report released today leads to some better decision-making and a change in the nation’s fortunes when it comes to dam planning and construction, and water management. This study focuses not only on urban supplies but on infrastructure projects that could open up agricultural opportunities across vast areas of the underdeveloped north. It speaks to the sort of nation-building projects we have long lauded in the Snowy Mountains Scheme and the historic irrigation developments across the Goulburn River and Sunraysia regions of Victoria, Riverland region of South Australia, Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area in NSW and Ord River scheme in Western Australia. The potential is immense for further long-term developments in the tropical north where rainfall is high but concentrated only in the wet season, and there are endless amounts of land available. Export demand for food in the East Asian hemisphere is already driving considerable growth and investment in our agricultural sector and has scope for intensive and long-term growth. Where feasible, processing and value-adding before export will create even more widespread opportunities. Getting infrastructure planning right is crucial so that private investment can have the confidence to do the rest.

Examining three catchments — Fitzroy River in WA, Mitchell River in Queensland and the Darwin area — the study favours four Queensland dams, two in the Northern Territory and smaller-scale water harvesting in the Fitzroy catchment. The report shows this could create almost 3000 jobs around Darwin and add more than $2.5bn to the local economy, while in Queensland there could be twice as many jobs and in WA the economic boost could be more than $800 million. The Coalition deserves credit for pursuing this exciting agenda. There is a long way to go but it suggests the sort of planning and infrastructure foresight that is required to ensure we diversify our economy and generate long-term jobs to sustain a growing population, especially in regions that don’t suffer from the congestion and cost problems of our biggest cities.