From your Chairman……

The Battle for the Environment

We believe that the single most likely reason that the dam proposal would not succeed is that the Queensland Government will not be able to demonstrate that it can deal satisfactorily with the environmental damage that the dam would cause. In this case the Federal Government would not approve the project and it could not be built. It is for that reason that we have decided to focus most of our efforts on putting the Queensland Government’s Terms of Reference (TOR) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the microscope and doing what it takes to ensure that our views are heard and that we have an opportunity to argue for changes, inclusions and deletions in these important documents.

With this in mind we have taken two important steps. The first was to engage an energetic and highly qualified and experienced specialist to supplement our own competent Environment

Research Team’s knowledge; and the second was to talk directly to the Federal Government to ensure that we have a clear understanding of the way the EIS evaluation and consideration process works and to provide information that will be of assistance as they work through that process.

Alan Sheridan, David Kreutz, Glenda Pickersgill, and I recently met with several key Federal Parliamentarians and officials in Canberra. The key message delivered was that the community had no trust in the integrity and honesty of the Queensland Government in connection with the assessment of what is effectively their own EIS and that we wanted the Federal Government to run the process and keep it away from the Queensland Government. While there was an understanding of and sympathy for our position, the EPBC legislation requires the Minister in this case to permit the Queensland Government to prepare the assessment; however the decision whether to approve the EIS rests with the Federal Minister for Environment & Heritage, Ian Campbell. It is likely that this process will take 12– 18 months to complete and work cannot begin on the dam unless and until the Federal Government approves the proposal.

While we therefore didn’t come away with exactly what we wanted, we received assurances that the Federal Government has already and will continue to actively engage the Queensland

Government in discussions to provide guidance and direction regarding the Terms of Reference and the suitability, completeness and accuracy of the EIS required under the EPBC Act. While the Federal Government process does not guarantee an outcome that will knock the dam on the head we came away believing that if the people we met with did what they said they would do when they said they would do it, there appear to be good prospects that we will get the fair go we deserve.

The flowchart on the following page shows our understanding of the proposed Queensland Government part of the process up to submission to the Federal Government. We believe that there needs to be a couple of extra steps and will be requesting that they be agreed to.

Firstly, we want an opportunity to see a final Draft Terms of Reference following the Public Comment step and before the (final) Terms of Reference are sent to Queensland Water infrastructure (QWI) to provide direction as to what the EIS must address. Similarly, we want an opportunity to see a final draft of the EIS after Public Comment step and the Supplementary EIS step and before it is sent to the Federal Government for approval. We want these steps included so that we can see which of the public suggestions have been included and which have not. We will want to understand the reasons for not adopting public suggestions and an opportunity to argue for reconsideration. If the government intends to run an open and transparent process we expect that they will be quite happy to agree with these suggestions.

Those Dam Alternatives

While the draft TOR is a very comprehensive document, there are several things that we believe need to be included and several things that need to be looked at differently. We will be pursuing these vigorously between now and the cut-off date for public comment on the draft TOR and during the development of the EIS. Included in the TOR is the requirement to consider alternative to the TC proposal.

A fair bit of work has been going on to develop a list of alternatives to the proposed dam and to calculate what those alternatives individually and in combination can deliver over time. It will be of no surprise to anyone that all appear to be a lower cost per megalitre of water delivered than the TC proposal. The Mary River Council of Mayors has commissioned a study of these alternatives and it is expected that the preliminary report will be issued before Xmas. We await this report with great interest.

Xmas Message

The committee of the STMRCG is very grateful for all the support it has received so far in the battle. We all feel that the community is very much behind us in our endeavour to defeat this stupid, politically motivated proposal; we are also very grateful knowing that the Mary Valley councils are right behind us also. Many thanks to all of you who have got behind us by providing donations, turning up at our events and meetings, and just coming up to us and telling us you appreciate our efforts. Many thanks also to a whole lot of people outside the committee who are in the background beavering away on research, analysis and communication tasks. You are doing a fantastic job. And many thanks to the specialists, local, interstate and international who contribute so freely and provide us with information and insights that are of so much value to us. A big thanks also to our friends in the media who are always prepared to talk with us and to listen to our point of view.

And on a personal note, a huge vote of thanks to my fellow committee members who give so much of their time and energy to keeping up the fight. You are an inspiration!

And to all of you out there who like us are outraged at the treatment the government has inflicted on us and who have to deal with the impacts of their behaviour on our lives and on the lives of our loved ones and friends, try to just push it into the background for a couple of weeks and enjoy the Xmas / New Year, recharge the batteries, and get ready for whatever we have to deal with in 2007.

And remember the words of wisdom from that renowned American baseball coach Yogi Beara whose sometimes seemingly weird statements upon reflection often contain great advice – “it’s never over till it’s over!”

Kevin Ingersole

NEWSLETTERS: PDF VERSION