A comment by federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek that she was "carefully considering all dam funding announcements from the previous government" has ignited concerns about the future of the Paradise Dam wall reinstatement.
State LNP water spokesperson Deb Frecklington said Queenslanders would be deeply alarmed by reports the federal government was considering turning its back on a funding commitment for the rebuild of Paradise Dam.
A sum of $600m had been promised from each of the state and federal governments towards raising the wall again, including by the ALP candidates for Hinkler and Flynn in the May federal election campaign.
The announcement that safety concerns were prompting Sunwater to release 100,000ML from the dam, in order to lower its wall, came from then-state water minister Anthony Lynham in September 2019.
Since then the Bundaberg region's farming community has tried to engage the government in meaningful discussions about saving the dam, including engaging one of the world's leading dam safety experts, Dr Paul Rizzo, to provide a second opinion on its future.
Despite the region's best efforts to save the dam, Sunwater removed 5.8 metres from the dam's spillway in 2020.
Ms Frecklington said this week the Paradise Dam rectification works were necessary to not only provide water security, but also water storage to protect communities downstream from the threat of flooding.
"It seems Labor doesn't understand the importance of Paradise Dam at all," she said, adding that state Water Minister Glenn Butcher couldn't give any timeframe for the work to be completed when questioned in Estimates earlier this year.
"If the Premier and her minister were serious about this project they would be on the phone to their federal Labor counterparts today," she said.
Bundaberg agribusiness lawyer Tom Marland has joined the chorus warning against funding delays.
He is leading a class action against the state government, claiming damages for losses associated with what it says is the government's mismanagement of the dam.
He said the longer it takes to reinstate Paradise Dam, the larger the claim for loss will be.
"Any delays in funding for the reinstatement of Paradise Dam will increase the risk of further losses in our local farming community" he said.
"Farmers have already spent millions of dollars mitigating the risks to their livelihoods as a result of the lowering of Paradise Dam to roughly 50 per cent of its original capacity."
He said they were in the process of finalising the claim size for the class action.
"If a lack of federal government funding causes the reinstatement of the dam wall to be delayed, then losses will continue to be incurred in our community and those additional losses will be included in the claim against the Queensland government.
"For the sake of the future prosperity of the Bundaberg community, it's imperative that the federal government funding is committed to in this year's federal budget.'
Mr Marland added that there were still a lot of questions around why Queensland and Australian taxpayers were having to spend $1.2 billion to 'fix' a dam that was only built 15 years ago.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
