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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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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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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DOZENS of families affected by the proposed Traveston Dam will not be able to buy back their properties because they are about to get a major highway through their yards. The Bruce Highway was realigned to incorporate the two stages of the proposed $1.7 billion dam project, with Main Roads turning the first sod in September. Anti-dam activists Alan and Jane Sheridan owned a 13ha property at Federal, near Gympie. They sold it to the State Government in 2007 for $1.2 million and leased it back - but now graders are working just 200m from the kitchen window. “We were hit by a double whammy: the dam and the highway,” Mrs Sheridan said yesterday. “The decision last week was a bittersweet victory. We were so happy they decided to not go ahead with the dam, but it is too late as far as the roadworks are concerned.” The Sheridans say they would have bought back their property - but the highway realignment left them with no choice but to move on.

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Updated on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 08:34AM by stevem

While the Queensland Government kept screaming that the Traveston Crossing Dam was all about water, Environment Minister Peter Garrett was looking at the threatened animals. The Queensland lungfish, the Mary River turtle, the Mary River cod, Coxen’s fig parrot and the Giant Barred Frog. And that was where Wednesday’s decision was made. And Premier Anna Bligh should not have been surprised. Despite her insistence the Traveston Crossing Dam was all about securing water for South East Queensland, that was not Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s job. That was the Queensland Government’s job, and their choice of dam site threatened five species. Mr Garrett had to rule on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999), not on any state or federal water supply legislation.

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Updated on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 06:09AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 06:11AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:56AM by stevem

The Bligh government has spent nearly $100 million on a pipeline that is still to be approved by the federal government. The federal environment department confirmed yesterday that documentation from Queensland coordinator general Colin Jensen for stage two of its northern water grid pipeline only arrived this week. It still had to go through a process of validation to ensure all relevant issues were addressed before it would even be considered by environment minister Peter Garrett.

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Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 08:10AM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 08:44AM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 08:47AM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 08:55AM by stevem

“REMEMBRANCE Day 2009 will be remembered for a long long time.” With those words, Alex Somlyay, whose Fairfax federal electorate once included Gympie, promised he would remember forever the integrity and moral courage of his political foe, Labor Environment Minister Peter Garrett. While Queensland Premier Anna Bligh remained a major exception, Mr Somlyay and Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce were among the first to respond to Mr Garrett’s “No Dam” announcement, expressing within minutes their open admiration for Mr Garrett. Sen Joyce went further, saying Ms Bligh now has no choice but to step down as Premier and explain “why she pursued with such venom something so destructive and which would not have worked at all.”

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Updated on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 10:24AM by stevem

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett will announce the government’s decision on Queensland’s controversial Traveston Crossing Dam on Wednesday afternoon. Mr Garrett has called a press conference in Brisbane at 1pm (AEST) to announce whether the billion-dollar plan to dam the Mary River in southeast Queensland will go ahead.

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Updated on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 11:25PM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 12:12AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 07:02AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 07:04AM by stevem

Peter Garrett is expected to reveal the fate of the Traveston Crossing Dam tomorrow and end a three-year waiting game for anguished residents. In a move ahead of his deadline, the Federal Environment Minister is set to fly to Brisbane to explain to Queenslanders how he made his decision. Residents in and near Mary Valley now have only hours before they learn their fate after a protracted battle with the Bligh and Beattie governments. Speculation is rife Mr Garrett will approve the dam, but with significant conditions imposed.

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Updated on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 10:59AM by stevem

Updated on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 11:02AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 10:50AM by stevem

Transcript from Meet the Press Sunday, 8 November, 2009, 8am Paul Bongiorno: Minister, Before we go we have a viewer question about the decision you are due to make this week about the controversial Traveston dam in Queensland . From Glenda Pickersgill, asks “After your decision on Traveston Dam, are you prepared to release publically without delay, the full report from your department to how you made that decision?”

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