Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) | Hansard source

On Friday last week, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister Keith Pitt, state member for Callide Colin Boyce and I were in Bundaberg for the announcement of the $600 million to match the Queensland state government contribution to rebuild the Paradise Dam. The request came from the Queensland government. The dam was built in 2005 by the Queensland Labor government and has quite a history, but it was plagued from the very start by serious construction failures. Cost-saving methods then have proven very costly in the long run. It should have been built properly in the first place.

The decision to rebuild was very well received by the growers in Bundaberg and Childers and the farmers at Coalstoun Lakes. These growers are desperate for continuous, reliable, affordable water. Prior to the dam being partly knocked down, trees had already been planted. These trees are only surviving from what they can get out of the air, from rainfall. It's reported that the Bundaberg region supplies 25 per cent of Australia's fruit and veg.

Now that the funding is in place, it is so important to get the dam rebuilt. In 2019, a couple of years ago, the Queensland government, for safety reasons, reduced the height of the wall by 5.8 metres and reduced the capacity of the dam to 42 per cent. Once rebuilt, the dam's full capacity will go up again to 300,000 megalitres, to give businesses and households confidence that they can access the water that they need. This will have lasting effects for decades and decades to come.

To rebuild the part of the dam wall that was knocked down will create 250 construction jobs and unlock new investments in the Bundaberg-Wide Bay area. It will also lead to other water projects in the North and South Burnett catchment areas. Cooranga Weir on the Boyne River between Proston and Mundubbera has been planned, but nothing has been done for years. A Coalstoun Lakes irrigation pipeline is mooted for those local farmers. A few years ago, I obtained $2 million from the federal government to conduct a water study for the North and South Burnett. The feasibility studies are now completed. Now that the decision has been made on the Paradise Dam, we can progress those projects in the North and South Burnett.

Other water projects in Flynn that we can talk about include the Bedford Weir. The Bedford Weir a few years ago had a bladder on top of the existing wall. In a tragic accident, that bladder burst—hence the new regulations that no more bladders can be placed on dam walls. The bursting of that bladder had tragic consequences: it poured onto people below who were having a picnic, resulting in tragic loss of life. So our government has seen fit to restore some of that water that was lost with the bladder bursting. Paranui Weir will be a new weir if the feasibility stacks up, and that's situated between Theodore and Moura on the mighty Dawson River. This is a highly agricultural area, and all it lacks is water. So there's $2 million of funding available for the feasibility study for the Paranui Weir and $1.7 million for the Bedford raising. So, with that, there are plenty of other— (Time expired)

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