LABOR LEAVES NORTH HIGH AND DRY

Shadow Minister for Northern Australia, Senator Susan McDonald has slammed Labor State and Federal Governments for allowing yet another North Queensland water project to languish in a funding and regulatory quagmire.

News this week that a frustrated Charters Towers Regional Council had relinquished ownership of Big Rocks Weir back to the State Government follows Federal Labor defunding the Cairns Water Project, Bowen Pipeline, Hells Gate Dam north-west of Townsville and Urannah Dam west of Mackay.

The Haughton Pipeline to service Townsville’s water needs is also facing cost blowouts and delays.

“It is clear that Labor despises the regions and it is opposed to water projects – a bad combination for North Queensland,” she said.

“Big Rocks is a small and sensible project that will have enormous benefits for Charters Towers to improve water security, increase food production and grow its population, but it is now a victim of a Labor water strategy that puts our regions last and anti-development green activists first.

“Under the previous Coalition Federal Government, all these projects had funding but Labor has either pulled it or dithered on the necessary work.

“North Queensland is represented almost exclusively by Labor State MPs and they have been silent.

“They should be barging into Steven Miles’s and Anthony Albanese’s offices demanding action but they haven’t and it’s North Queenslanders who suffer.”

The Townsville-based LNP Senator urged North Queenslanders to make their dissatisfaction known at the State Election ballot box on October 26.

“People have put faith in Labor but it is clear the Labor MPs in Cairns, Townsville and Mackay will only do what Brisbane and Canberra tell them to do,” she said.

ENDS