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

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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DROUGHT has dragged the water-guzzling Cubbie Station to the brink of collapse, with administrators poised to take over the nation’s biggest cotton producer. The National Australia Bank is seeking the urgent repayment of a $320 million mortgage over the 93,000ha southern Queensland property, which can store enough water to fill Sydney Harbour. Cubbie Group chairman Keith De Lacy - a former Queensland Labor treasurer - refused to say yesterday if voluntary administrators would be appointed this week. But he told The Australian on Monday that none of the five bidders in a firesale of the property had offered enough to cover the massive bank debt, and said the bank “wants to get its money back”.

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BRISBANE ratepayers will receive a separate water bill from January, following the formation of a huge council-owned water distribution company. The change is likely to coincide with another hike in water charges, expected to push the average Brisbane household water bill above $600 a year, nearly double what it was five years ago. The company, Queensland Urban Utilities, will handle the distribution and sale of all water to homes and business in Brisbane, Ipswich and towns in the Lockyer Valley.

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The launch of the international tender campaign sparked national debate over whether the NSW, Queensland or federal governments should buy Cubbie Station to provide environmental water flows for the Murray-Darling Basin river system. The governments all subsequently ruled themselves out of the tender process. The station, plus two smaller properties, which form part of the same sale, have a total land area of 93,329 hectares and 538,800 megalitres of water storage capacity - enough water to fill Sydney Harbour with some left over.

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The rollout of the SEQ water grid pipeline is about to enter its next destructive phase, which will wreak havoc through the quiet hills around Nambour and points north. In the immediate firing line is Keith Paxton’s Australian best-practice passionfruit farm, and families that live on and around Pringle Hill. Keith, whose property attracts international attention, is about to have to watch on as a welt is cut through the middle of his prize crop. It is part of the relentless march northward to Traveston and the illusion of water security from a shallow, alluvial plain dam. He has for comfort the reassuring words of the Northern Network Alliance, a group of companies selected by the state government to benefit from its obscene cash splash. His nightmares are fuelled by the experience of those the pipeline has already passed. They are the ones who hold photographs of rich topsoil being taken from their properties, the ones who have been told it wasn’t stolen, but who have been given no assurances they will get it back.

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Updated on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 10:23AM by stevem

THE Queensland government has defended the legal impasse over the possible sale of Cubbie Station, claiming that moves to separate the water and land entitlements to land should be clear by the end of the year. Under current Queensland legislation, water entitlement comes with a specific parcel of land, which means it is impossible to buy a water allocation in Queensland without buying the land that goes with it. Other states have separated the two, and in practice it means that the federal government would pay substantially more to buy back water licences in Queensland than it would in other states. Currently, the matter is being reviewed by the courts as part of a legal challenge by irrigators to water allocations in the Balonne area, and Premier Anna Bligh said yesterday that it could be resolved as early as next month.

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In a stunning win for the diplomacy of Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay mayors Bob Abbot and Allan Sutherland, the state government has agreed to let them “go it alone” in forming a water distribution and retail entity. Natural resources minister Stephen Robertson yesterday said discussions resulted in an agreement to change the original composition of three water entities to serve south east Queensland, which will see western councils team up with Brisbane and Scenic Rim instead of the two northern councils. The groupings are now - Brisbane combined with Scenic Rim, Ipswich, Somerset and Lockyer; Gold Coast together with Logan and Redlands, and Sunshine Coast with Moreton Bay.

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Updated on Monday, July 13, 2009 at 10:55AM by stevem

The mayors of Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay councils have expressed dismay at the state government’s announcement of new water businesses. While the decision to create three entities, was a positive alternative to the government’s original monolithic single entity proposal, mayor Bob Abbot said there was “no logic” in the other councils being part of it. Under the plan, Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay would join with Ipswich, Somerset and Lockyer councils to form one water distribution and retail business. The Council of Mayors of South-East Queensland had lobbied the government to consider alternative plans to a one-entity water system.

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Updated on Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 01:08AM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 09:05AM by stevem

Updated on Friday, July 3, 2009 at 09:28AM by stevem

Updated on Friday, July 3, 2009 at 09:31AM by stevem

Updated on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 02:45PM by stevem

THE showpiece of the State Government’s $9 billion water grid, the Gold Coast desalination plant, is a $1.2 billion lemon. Rusting pipework, cracking concrete, faulty valves and leaching of contaminants from a rubbish dump on which the plant was built are among several serious defects revealed in a report to be given to the Government today. The Government is refusing to accept ownership of the Tugun facility and has threatened legal action against contractors if the faults are not fixed. This is after a Freedom of Information application by The Courier-Mail into problems that have plagued the plant since its official opening in November, when it failed to come on line as scheduled.

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The Queensland Opposition says expensive water projects in the south-east have failed to deliver and left the State Government struggling financially. State Parliament has passed new laws changing the structure of the Queensland Water Commission (QWC). There will be one commissioner instead of three and some responsibilities will be transferred to government departments. The State Government says the changes will save $7 million over four years, on top of $15 million cut from the QWC public relations budget. In debate in Parliament last night on the QWC changes, Opposition spokesman Jeff Seeney told the House that the Tugun desalination plant on the Gold Coast has been plagued by problems.

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