A Senate Inquiry into the flawed Traveston Dam will make no difference to whether or not South East Queensland runs out of water.

Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce today called Acting Premier Anna Bligh’s bluff over the timing of key water infrastructure projects in South East Queensland.

“Anna Bligh knows that Wivenhoe Dam could be out of water by October 2008.

“Even by the Beattie Government’s optimistic timeframes, Traveston Dam will not be completed until 2011 – years after Brisbane runs out of water. Only rain can save the Beattie Government from the infrastructure drought it has created over the past eight years.”

Senator Joyce said the State Government’s water grid was smoke and mirrors.

“The Southern Regional pipeline to Hinze Dam backed up by the Tugan desalination plant can only produce top up water and it will not be completed until well into 2009 – again too late for the current crisis.

“The Western Corridor recycling project along with the proposal to drink recycled sewage water physically cannot be built until years past the 2008 Armageddon deadline.

“South East Queensland is in this predicament because up until April last year, the Beattie Government had a ‘no dams’ policy and had no plans for any other water infrastructure. Anna Bligh is using the prospect of a Senate Inquiry into Traveston Dam to shift the blame for the massive water deficit that will occur if we have one more summer like the past few.

“What the Senate Inquiry will do is put the Queensland Labor Government under oath so that it has to tell the truth about Traveston.”

“We're all for fixing the water crisis but we're not for wasting an inordinate amount of money and putting in threat a number of species to do it when other viable alternatives exist, as spelt out by the Queensland Nationals in the lead up to last year’s State election.”