Early works for upgrades to the notorious Cooroy to Curra section of the Bruce Highway started on Monday, June 29 and it appears they could not have started soon enough. Documents tabled in Queensland parliament in June by main roads minister Craig Wallace show the 64km stretch of the highway, familiar to emergency service workers throughout the region, has been the scene of 56 deaths in nine years. As well as the loss of life, 295 people have been hospitalised with injuries following 840 crashes between 2000 and 2008.

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There has been a very lively debate in the Qld State parliament (4 Jun 2009) on the proposed amendments to the Water and Another Act Amendment Bill and on the performance of the QLD Water Commission.. These extracts from Hansard show that Traveston and the Mary Valley are still open to lively debate. Mr Messenger: ‘Why is the Premier so reactive? What did she do when she was a child? Did she go to school and grab canteens from all the other schoolchildren, dip them into the toilet to fill them up and maybe put little fluoride tablets in their canteens? Did they give her $10 worth of pocket money and she spent $20?’ This is what we have. We have a Premier who has mismanagement in her DNA. She is reliving some sort of childhood fantasy.” Mr MESSENGER: ‘All the evaporation we will put it on an alluvial plain, we will let it leak out and we will move cemeteries and main roads‘“absolute poppycock. It is absolute craziness that they have gone ahead with this. The member for Gympie said it was going to cost $1.7 billion or $1.5 billion “the government is going backwards in its price. I predict that it will probably cost $2 billion or $3 billion if this government actually goes ahead and displays its normal mismanagement”

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RECENT media reports praising the Queensland government for being willing to build a dam to secure a new water supply for south-east Queensland fail to recognise the full impacts of the proposed Traveston crossing dam, according to member for Gympie David Gibson. “Dams have a place in any water supply mix along with storm water harvesting, desalination and the use of recycled water for industrial and agricultural purposes, and of course they should not be avoided simply to appease any protest group,” Mr Gibson said. He was responding to an article published in The Australian on May 26. “The approval or otherwise for any proposed dam should be based on sound scientific evidence and the assessment must be made taking into account all factors not just the technical water supply factors,” Mr Gibson said. “The proposed Traveston Crossing Dam has not passed any level of assessment to show that it is a viable solution to providing water for SEQ.”

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Bought to you by Labor and Qld Greens

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SITTING MP David Gibson yesterday responded to an aggressive attack on his performance from rival and predecessor Elisa Roberts, as the election campaign heated up early in the Gympie electorate. Mr Gibson said it was important to vote in a way that would get rid of Labor and for voters to support “a viable and credible alternative.” Independent candidate, Ms Roberts, said the people of Gympie had been “largely ignored by the Bligh Government because of ineffective representation in George Street.” “The Premier isn’t listening to the current Member, because he is a member of the Liberal National Party, which has failed to present as a unified cohesive opposition,” she said.

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Updated on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 08:04AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 09:36AM by stevem

THE Queensland Greens appear to have abandoned the Traveston Crossing dam as a pivotal issue in the upcoming State election. Statements from the party yesterday applauded the State Government’s deferral of the project and refused to make abandoning it a condition of any pre-election preference deal with Labor. In a written media statement, Greens spokesperson Libby Connors said the Greens “applaud the government’s decision to defer the Traveston dam,” even though Premier Anna Bligh has said the dam will proceed as soon as possible, given environmental approval. And, interviewed by ABC Radio, the party’s only Queensland MP, Ronan Lee, refused to rule out a preference deal with Labor, even if the dam remains on the government’s post-election agenda.

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The Liberal National Party’s Environment spokesperson David Gibson has been caught out wrongly claiming the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam is more expensive than a desalination plant, when the water is delivered to Brisbane. “Once again Mr Gibson has deliberately misled the people of Queensland and his own constituents,” said Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning Paul Lucas. “The truth is that Traveston Crossing Dam is the best and cheapest option when compared to all possible and known desalination sites in South East Queensland, even including the cost of pumping water.”

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THE proposal to dam the Mary River was not just a local issue, but one of national and international significance, Australian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown said yesterday. Arriving from Canberra to take part in the GetUp! Climate Torch Relay, Senator Brown told hundreds of protesters who gathered at the proposed dam wall site at Traveston Crossing, south of Gympie, that southeast Queensland didn’t need a dam but a “great big dose of common sense”.

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THE word “consultation” should be culled from Queensland’s political language because it “obviously has no meaning”. That was the first on-the-ground reaction obtained yesterday from the Rainbow Beach business community to new State Government plans for recreational uses of the Cooloola coastline. “It’s an absolute farce,” said store owner and “unofficial Beach mayor” Ruth Modin. “What is the point of obtaining community input and then ignoring it?” she said. “That’s why (Gympie MP) David Gibson’s approach was right, in calling a public meeting early, before the draft was written. “Once it’s in writing, it’s so hard to get them to change it.”

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GYMPIE MP David Gibson has backed the Gubbi Gubbi people in their outrage at new moves to block their native title claims over their traditional lands upstream from the proposed Traveston Crossing dam. And he supported an aboriginal call to arms to defend native title rights against the financial might of private companies, such as QWI, who were well resourced enough to hire Queens Counsel even for preliminary hearings on native title matters.

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