Another wasted wet makes Katter feel sick
KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter, says every time he sees the Flinders River in flood, he gets a sick feeling in his stomach knowing that a new irrigation project has not been built in North Queensland in 30 years, and says it’s crucial that the Hughenden Irrigation Project (HIPCo) is built immediately.
Photos taken by Stewart Nielsen from his chopper near Hughenden, show the Flinders River running after this week’s weather system passed through.
The latest water licence process for the Flinders River is underway with the Hughenden Irrigation Project (HIPCo) vying for a major slice of the water.
The 160 gigalitre dam, which Bob Katter secured $180m in federal funding for off Prime Minister Scott Morrison, will provide water for 11-thousand hectares of irrigated, owner-operator, farming, moving up to 20-thousand hectares by the end of the decade.
Mr Katter said it was crucial the latest water licence allocation went to the locals and not foreign or absentee corporations as it did in the last process.
“The State ALP allocated all the water allocations from the Flinders River to the AA Company, a foreign corporation, and Stanbroke, an absentee landlord corporation. The people of north west Queensland got nothing,” he said.
“I get a sickening feeling in my stomach watching that water flow downstream. We have the proposal drawn up, ready-to-go for HIPCo and yet the State Government’s track record is to give the water to big corporations, not the locals. We shouldn’t have to drain the artesian aquifer to get our water.
“The whole aim of HIPCo is to grow the population of inland Australia. We can repeat this irrigation model at Richmond, Julia Creek, Cloncurry and through the Gulf towns like Normanton, Burketown, Georgetown, and Doomadgee.
“The Greenies want us to live in cities because they ‘don’t pollute’. The cities are the best creators of pollution. You can see a city’s light and heat pollution from 20 kilometres away. We must populate the inland.”
Mr Katter said he will use any position of power after the election to demand timeframes for the construction of HIPCo and other North Queensland water schemes.
“I will act with damaging hostility if whoever forms government doesn’t meet the construction timeframes,” he said.
“They will just bury you in studies and reports, so we will be setting definite deadlines.
“The Federal Government can ride over the top of the State. Look at the Franklin Dams case or the Snowy Mountains, the Federal Government will prevail in a High Court constitutional challenge over dams.”
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