No, you guessed it, none of our representatives picked up an Oscar this week at the Academy Awards.  Given the rumours have been all over town for more than 4 months that the Federal government were keen to waste another $120m or more of taxpayers’ money on this stalled project, I had thought that they were contenders in the following categories:

Best actor – Barnaby Joyce for his performance in the interview with Peter Stefanovic, Sky News on 23 March 2022 for “Emu Swamp down at Stanthorpe in the lower part of Queensland, we’ve ... put the money on the table.”  I love a mystery!  Whose table exactly?  Great acting for suggesting that an unknown amount of money on no doubt a private table might get this project started.

Best actress – Annastacia Palaszczuk for her performance in State Parliament on 16 March 2022 saying “The member for Southern Downs is getting his dam as well, so I do not know what he’s complaining about”.  It may have been an attempt to build drama and anticipation in an otherwise fairly dull story?  For me, I think I prefer a straight-shooting western.

Best supporting actor– James Lister, for his performance in State Parliament on the same date saying “After three years the project is still stalled and awaiting State approvals.”  Fabulous acting here from James, in attempting to give the impression that State approvals are the only thing holding this dam up.  In fact the project hasn’t acquired the land it needs or the water allocations it needs and no longer passes a cost benefit analysis for the use of taxpayer money.  But like a true actor, James isn’t going to let that get in the way of a great performance.      

Of course, the ham acting of all of them meant no-one got a gong.  But it is clear they all knew what was going on and the disregard by all of them for the people who will lose their homes and livelihoods for this dam, as well as their abject failure to keep the electorate informed, is beyond disappointing.  The results of the tenders have been known since September 2021, but even today no-one has seen fit to properly inform the community.  We don’t even know who the irrigators are who are the beneficiaries of this largesse.  A single line in the Budget for an additional $126.6 million from the Federal government confirms that the estimated cost of construction of the dam has more than doubled to over $210m.  The earlier estimate was $84m.  Taxpayers will be funding 89% of this private project, compared to the investors’ $24m.

Sarcasm aside, our representatives need to do much better by all of us.  They need to spend taxpayer dollars more equitably in looking after the long-term interests of the people of the Granite Belt, rather than for the benefit of a small group of hidden investors. 

If Barnaby Joyce and David Littleproud were actually interested in water security for the region, they would be looking at projects that benefit the whole region (population 35,000), rather than a “private” dam for 50 irrigators.  With $173m of Federal money we could have both the Connolly Dam pipeline, and raise the wall of Storm King Dam, either of which would be better at providing water security for Stanthorpe.  And with the buckets of money left over we could fund water efficiency projects for all of the Granite Belt’s 450 farmers, rather than just 50.