Traveston Crossing Dam Knocked Out
11th November, 2009
The interim decision today by the Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, to reject the Queensland Labor’s Government’s Traveston Crossing Dam has been welcomed by the Federal Member for Wide Bay and Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss.Mr Truss said the environmental evidence was overwhelming and Mr Garrett had no option but to reject Queensland Labor’s ill-conceived proposal.
The Australian Lung Fish, the Mary River Turtle, the Mary River Cod and the threatened marine systems of the Great Sandy Strait Wetlands have been given the best chance of survival.
Mr Truss said the decision lifts the deep burden of uncertainty that has been hanging over the lives of the people of the Mary Valley.
“The Beattie and Bligh Governments should be ashamed of themselves for putting the Mary Valley communities through three and a half years of hell,” Mr Truss said.
“Many people have been forced from their homes and lives have been ruined for a project was always ill-conceived and could never have been allowed to proceed.”
Labor failed to listen to the political lessons of the Traveston Crossing Dam. Premier Bligh was always determined to go ahead even though Labor had not won or held a single State or Federal electorate in the area since the Dam was announced.
The Traveston Crossing Dam made no sense as a water supply option for Brisbane. There have always been a range of more cost effective, reliable and less environmentally damaging alternatives. With the $1 billion that has already been wasted on the Traveston Crossing Dam, some of these alternatives could already have been in operation.
The Queensland Government must now move to make peace with the Mary Valley and to provide compensation to the people and communities whose lives have been callously disrupted by the Traveston Crossing Dam fiasco.
Mr Truss congratulated the local community on the success of their long campaign to stop the Dam. “They effectively harnessed the skills, knowledge and determination of the local people, to prepare the case against the Dam and to prosecute the arguments with vigour and commitment. They prepared detailed scientific and engineering papers but also took the case to the public with clever cut-through messages and signs. They were at every public event possible, taking their message to anyone who would listen.
“I arranged for the delivery of more than 9,450 letters, a 6,000 signature petition, and 16,000 submissions on the Environmental Impact Assessment to the Government.
“The campaign helped to support those whose properties were being taken from them, and bind the community together through the dark days. The local
community received remarkable support from around the country which encouraged us all to keep up the effort.
“The whole of the Mary Valley from top to bottom has had a load taken from it shoulders and now we need to get on with the task of rebuilding our future,” Mr Truss said.
