Dam propaganda campaign must end immediately
26th November, 2008
Federal Member for Wide Bay Warren Truss has called on Premier Anna Bligh to immediately stop Queensland Water Infrastructure’s dam propaganda campaign.“For months the Mary Valley community has been subjected to full page colour advertisements filled with inaccuracies and mistruths disguised as ‘facts’ about the proposed Traveston Crossing dam,” Mr Truss said.
“The community has known all along that the so called ‘facts’ propagated in the campaign were not based on sound science.
“These ‘facts’ have now been debunked by the Premier’s own Coordinator General, who has clear misgivings about the fate of protected and endangered species should the dam proceed.
“For months we have been told by the Government through these expensive advertisements that the dam would not pose any threat to the Queensland Lungfish, the Mary River Cod and the Mary River Turtle. Now we have the dam being delayed by up to four years or more so the Labor Government can concoct a scheme to protect these species.”
Mr Truss said the advertising campaign was a vain attempt to save Environment Minister Andrew McNamara’s political skin.
“The advertising campaign has been extremely misleading. Rather than educating the community about the real impacts of the dam, the announcement to delay the dam shows that the assertions made in the advertisements were not based on science.
“Mr McNamara is a Minister in a Government that has allowed taxpayers’ money to be spent on propagating myths, not facts. He can not turn around now and say that he only supported the dam if it stacks up environmentally, when his Government backed the flawed environmental defence of the dam through its advertising campaign all along.
“The advertisements have been propaganda — not education.
“Mr McNamara needs to front the Mary Valley community and explain how it is that he can be such a strong supporter of the dam when it has now been admitted by his own Government that the dam is an environmental disaster.
“Mr McNamara and Ms Bligh should be ashamed of the hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars they have wasted on pursuing this ill-considered and ill-conceived nightmare that has hurt so many Mary River communities.”
