Updated on Saturday, November 28, 2009 at 08:43AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 28, 2009 at 08:45AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 28, 2009 at 08:58AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 28, 2009 at 09:31AM by stevem

QUEENSLAND Water Commission is in negotiations with Japanese water interests about a scheme that could one day allow private companies to own and sell the rain that falls on our roofs. Following the loss of its water grid centrepiece, the Traveston Crossing Dam, the state government has committed to exploring all opportunities for rainwater harvesting and re-use. But supporters of a rainwater harvesting project for the Coolum Ridges residential subdivision say the dam’s loss has not eased pressure from the government or its bureaucracy to treat water as a tradable commodity that helps raise revenue.

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This is a prime example of the old adage that nobody’s life liberty or property is safe while parliament is sitting. While property rights are generally secure from private encroachment, they have no security when the government invokes “the common good.” It seems incredible to me that in the long run the destruction of the Mary Valley was only averted due to the presence of some fish, turtles and frogs etc. I am not in any way attempting to denigrate those who led the campaign on these issues, indeed we would all be poorer for the extinction of these species, and these people promoted the issue that saved the day. Congratulations to them on that. It is shocking though that the enormous economic costs, social disruption, waste of resources, incredible stupidity of the concept, and the crushing psychological burden to the victims of this outrage, counted for nothing. Right up to the announcement of the decision the Premier was waging psychological warfare on landholders attempting to force them to sell.

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Updated on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 11:36AM by stevem

A MAJOR economic analysis of the State Government’s $15 billion asset sale claims the plan has no credibility, could cost millions and is based on poor economic advice and manipulated Treasury figures. The report, by Sydney University Professor Bob Walker and his wife Betty Con-Walker, a former NSW Treasury boss, rubbishes the need for the privatisation and claims it would be fundamentally foolish. It describes the Government’s strategy as a “Magic Pudding” which could somehow reduce debt and build infrastructure with the same money. The report, commissioned by the union movement which is opposed to privatisation, also claims the Government manipulated figures to provide an economic picture that was far worse than in reality.

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Campaigners who have successfully stopped the construction of the proposed Traveston Crossing dam were today calling on the Premier to “stop the scaremongering” over the price of water in the wake of Minister Garrett’s decision regarding the proposed dam. “We are responding to the repeated claims by the Premier that now that the Traveston Crossing dam has been knocked back by Garrett, water prices will have to go up in Brisbane,” said Glenda Pickersgill, president of the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group. “The independent assessment Minister Garrett commissioned found the economic analysis used to justify the failed Traveston Crossing dam to be seriously flawed. This report vindicates criticisms that we, and many other groups have made over the last three and a half years.” “Are they using the same flawed economic analysis to support the statements made last week about the increase in water costs? - asked Ms Pickersgill. “The figures suggested by Minister Robertson last week certainly don’t stack up in our view and we are very concerned that the Premier is making the same mistakes all over again.” “If prices go up, the numbers show it would be no fault of Minister Garrett but the fault of the Queensland Government for their dogmatic approach to water management, their consistent economic bungling and repeated cost blowouts in their water infrastructure projects.” The Coordinator General himself admitted in his report on the Traveston Crossing dam proposal, that even with the highest population growth predicted only 20 billion litres more water would be needed in South East Queensland by 2026.

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Updated on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 07:57AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 07:17AM by stevem

Premier Bligh has outlined a six month buy back scheme for the Mary Valley landowners who sold their properties so that the Traveston Crossing Dam project could proceed. Ms Bligh said normal rules had been waived so that tenant farmers and other former Mary Valley landowners could buy their land back at the same price they sold it for. Under normal State Government buy back rules that opportunity normally only exists for 12 months after the original sale of the property and many of the landowners in the Valley sold their land up to two years ago.

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LAST month’s announcement that the federal government would demand a say in planning the future of Australian cities saw Queensland premier Anna Bligh immediately jump in with a suggestion. Ms Bligh applauded prime minister Kevin Rudd’s approach but said her state already had the answers. Lauding her government’s infrastructure plan as an international award winner, Ms Bligh said it could be the model to guide the growth of the “big Australia” Mr Rudd envisaged. There is fat chance of that now. Central to that SEQ infrastructure plan was her government’s $9 billion water strategy which now lies exposed as an exercise in pure folly.

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Updated on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 10:38AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 10:42AM by stevem

Premier Anna Bligh has another water battle on her hands after a huge rally last night vowed to fight tooth and nail to block desalination plants as a water security option. Ms Bligh will again have to run the gauntlet of the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Protection Act, which killed off the Traveston Crossing Dam. The Marcoola pipeline route from the ocean to the desalination plant and then on to connect with the grid to take water to Brisbane would affect 35 different species covered by that act, according to Sunshine Coast councillor Debbie Blumel.

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Updated on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 06:55AM by stevem

Campaigners who have successfully stopped the Traveston Crossing Dam proposal yesterday called on Premier Anna Bligh to “stop scaremongering” over the price of water in the wake of Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s rejection of the dam. The Premier’s claims had already been shown to be spurious and that was one reason they were rejected, according to Save the Mary River Group president Glenda Pickersgill. “The independent assessment Minister Garrett commissioned found the economic analysis used to justify the failed Traveston Crossing Dam to be seriously flawed. This report vindicates criticisms that we, and many other groups have made over the last three and a half years.” “Are they using the same flawed economic analysis to support the statements made last week about the increase in water costs? - asked Ms Pickersgill. “The figures suggested by Minister Robertson last week certainly don’t stack up in our view and we are very concerned that the Premier is making the same mistakes all over again.” “If prices go up, the numbers show it would be no fault of Minister Garrett but the fault of the Queensland Government for their dogmatic approach to water management, their consistent economic bungling and repeated cost blowouts in their water infrastructure projects.

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The Queensland president of the Australian Water Association (AWA) says the State Government has plenty of water supply options for the south-east. The AWA’s annual Queensland regional conference was held at Coolum, on the Sunshine Coast, at the weekend. Issues discussed included the management, treatment and regulation of water. Last week, Premier Anna Bligh said the construction of two desalination plants would have to be brought forward because the Traveston Crossing dam, near Gympie, had been vetoed. But the AWA’s John Graham says desalination is one of a number of options. “There are plenty of options - there’s recycled water, there’s stormwater recycling, there’s surface water, there’s also desalination but there’s also consumption,” he said. “Certainly changing people’s patterns, that is an important factor.

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Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 07:03AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 07:22AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 07:34AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:04AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:15AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:22AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 09:00AM by stevem

A Split has opened in the state government over whether a desalination plant would be built and operating at Marcoola by 2017. Queensland premier Anna Bligh responded to the federal government’s axing of the Traveston dam last week by declaring that sites at Marcoola and Lytton, on Brisbane’s bayside, would “be needed for desalination to be operational in 2017. This will mean more expensive water as a result of the federal decision this afternoon”. However, the department of natural resources, in response to several questions asked by the Sunshine Coast Daily, has cast serious doubt on those time lines.

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