EVEN AG MINISTER DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM NORTHERN REPORT

Sign Up for free e-mail updates!

In Question Time yesterday Agriculture Minister Tony Bourke paid faint praise to the Northern Australian Land and Water Taskforce.

Although originally set up by the Howard Government, the terms of reference and most importantly the personnel on the Taskforce were changed when Labor took office.

After a year of inaction the Taskforce eventually got going and has this week produced a Report which has been widely condemned.

It is however interesting to note that even a minister in the Rudd Government is distancing himself from the findings of the Labor appointed taskforce.

The Minister specifically rejected the scenario put forward in the report that by 2030 no dams will be built in Northern Australia (page vi). The report also contains the inaccurate comment that “relatively little of the rainfall occurs in upper reaches of the rivers where the topography to allow dam construction may be more favourable”.

Clearly the Minister is aware of serious proposals to dam the Gilbert River at Green Hills and the Flinders River at Mt Beckford. The Minister should also be aware of the proposal to the O’Connell Creek overflow on the Flinders River near Richmond.

The Taskforce had clearly been captured by the radical green element and predictions such as one third of Northern Australia being locked up in the National Reserve System by 2030 is indicative of this. (page vii).

After the Wild Rivers legislation debacle in Queensland, indigenous people in Northern Australia will be horrified at the prediction that most of their land will be locked up in reserve systems.

The fact that the Agriculture Minister now seems to have a different position to the Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia, who warmly applauded the Taskforce report, is an interesting development and demonstrates again that the Rudd Government is leaderless when it comes to Northern Australia.

END

11 February 2010

Media contact Gordon Terry      (07) 4771 3066   or   0427 960 255                                           

More Media Releases