Back to square one?
It will take some time for Australia’s new government to settle in, and for Ministers to be appointed and review their new portfolios. But what can we say now about the implications for the proposed Emu Swamp Dam?
Firstly, we know that the additional $126.6 million of Federal money was a budget announcement only. So far as we have been able to ascertain it is not committed Departmental or grant funding.
This appears to be confirmed by David Littleproud’s Maranoa Mail of 12 April 2022 which, while referring to money he has secured for the region, doesn’t mention Emu Swamp Dam. His election-eve Maranoa Mail of 19 May 2022, while also referring to money he has secured for the region, again makes no mention of Emu Swamp Dam.
In any event the March budget announcement, on the eve of an election, was always heavily conditional upon the government winning the election. So what happens next?
Australia’s new treasurer, Jim Chalmers, told the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 22 March that an Albanese government would release its own budget by the time of the traditional mid-year fiscal update in December, if not sooner. The aim of the new budget would be to
“look at the full extent of nearly a decade of rorts and waste and start dealing with it.”
Prior to the election POW! had made FOI (freedom of information) applications and written questions to get more detail around the March budget announcement. The responses we’re received so far indicate that the Department of Water had not undertaken any further formal review of the project before the new funding was announced.
As a result it seems not only likely, but in fact very reasonable, that any new government will want to do a proper merits-based review before allocating taxpayer money to this private infrastructure project. The project now clearly (on its own business case) fails a cost benefit analysis, so it is hard to see how giving $178.6 million of Federal government money to a private dam for 50 investors is an acceptable use of taxpayer money.