Today’s news that the Traveston Dam will be subjected to assessment under Commonwealth environment law has been welcomed by Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce.
“This gives breathing space to the people of the Mary River Valley, Gympie, Maryborough and Noosa who are concerned about this indictment on their lives,” Senator Joyce said.
"The Beattie Government-created water supply crisis has to be fixed with a solution, not another problem."
Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell today announced that the dam would become a “controlled action” under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, a process that could take two years.
“This is the normal process under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and puts Premier Peter Beattie’s timeframe of water flowing by 2011 in serious doubt. Mr Beattie has always known that this process was necessary,” Senator Joyce said.
“This gives us time to better prepare the case to stop Beattie and Bligh, as there are several endangered species and it impacts on Ramsar declared wetlands.
No construction activity is allowed to occur at all while a project is a controlled action.
“This process shows the Beattie Government is not serious about solving the water crisis created by its previous ‘no dams’ policy,” Senator Joyce said.
Senator Joyce met with officials from Minister Campbell’s office this week in Canberra. This followed his recent visit to the Mary River Valley.
He backed calls from the local Mayors to focus on raising the Borumba Dam; an option which engineers say can store more water than the Traveston Dam.
“If the Beattie Government was serious about fixing the water crisis, it wouldn’t have ruled out Borumba.
“The reality is that Traveston has never been the only option to fixing the water supply crisis. It would appear that quicker solutions which provide more water are available,” Senator Joyce said.
Welcoming the intervention of the Minister, Senator Joyce said he had not ruled out pushing for a Senate Inquiry in the future.