Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Transport and Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

Queensland seems to be proposing a road for submarines rather than for cars. What we have here is a government on the run, trying to sabotage an important Queensland development aimed at ensuring that there is adequate transport movement up and down the Queensland coast.

Needless to say, the constituents of the member for Fairfax—and my own—are very angry about this proposal. There have been numerous public meetings, including one addressed by the member for Fairfax, where thousands of people have demonstrated their disgust that this proposal has been dumped on them without any warning or notice. Six local mayors have all indicated that they regard this proposal as completely unacceptable, commenting particularly on the lack of information and lack of studies into the feasibility of the dam and its impact.

But it is not just the local people who are angry. It is not just those whose farms will be flooded and whose roads will be submerged. It is not just those people whose livelihoods will be destroyed. A very interesting letter has just come to my hands from Dr Ivan Molloy. He was quite a well-known character at the last federal election—well known to members opposite in the worst possible sense—but he also happens to be the husband of the member for Noosa, Cate Molloy, representing one of the areas supposed to be advantaged by this dam proposal. Dr Molloy has written:

This ill-judged decision, with such disastrous environmental and social consequences and undertaken without any semblance of community consultation, indicates either the state government is in pre-election crisis or is arrogant and out of touch. ... Either scenario is not healthy.

Queenslanders know a fair bit about not being healthy. But here we have the Labor Party, as well, recognising that this Beattie dam proposal—or damn Beattie proposal, as most of the locals refer to it—is an environmental disaster. It will significantly interfere with the infrastructure of the region. It is a proposal that the Beattie government should put to death immediately.

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