On 5 April 2022, prior to the election, The Hon David Littleproud MP sent a letter to all Stanthorpe residents.  Interestingly I’ve been told by our Warwick readers that it was not sent to them.  For those who didn’t see it, the letter said:

I am pleased to advise you the Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to Emu Swamp Dam being completed by allocating an additional $126.5 million in this year's Budget for water security in your Granite Belt region.

This takes the Federal Government's commitment to $168.5 million.  Construction can begin once the Queensland Government completes its processes, but the project is now certain to be constructed because of the Federal Coalition Government's financial commitment.

The emphasis here is mine.  Those of you who read my blog yesterday will appreciate that there does not appear to be a binding commitment by the Federal Government to spend $168.5 million on this project and it is far from certain that the project will proceed to construction.    

Mr Littleproud’s letter states that the project is currently waiting on the Queensland Government to “complete its processes”.  It ignores the fact that Granite Belt Water still hasn’t met a number of fundamental preconditions for the project to reach “Go” stage, being:

• Environmental approvals including environmental offset requirements

• Planning and works approvals

• Aggregation of water entitlements for the project, particularly given that there is no legal power under the Water Act for the Queensland government to give a temporary lease over urban water allocations as requested by Granite Belt Water

• Confirmation that the investors (which includes Council) will fund all cost overruns, because neither the State nor Federal government funding covers this

• Agreement from all landowners in the inundation area to sell the necessary land to Granite Belt Water

It would be a brave person who, at the current time, would assure investors that it is “certain” that the project will be constructed.  I certainly hope investors, including our Council, took this merely as election puffery, and that no-one is putting money out the door in reliance on Mr Littleproud’s statement.