Last week our MP James Lister gave a speech to the Queensland parliament.  Overall it was a very good speech, and represented the interests of the Southern Downs on a range of issues.

I of course focused on the water issues in that speech, and I want to correct just a few of the statements that Mr Lister made.

First up, the Toowoomba to Warwick (T2W) pipeline.  Mr Lister said

I acknowledge the government’s investment in a pipeline to take water theoretically from the South-East Queensland grid down to Warwick. It is a nice thing to have, but what I do not know is what the cost will be to ratepayers.

Good news Mr Lister, this one has already been answered!  On 8 March 2023 SDRC tabled a letter from the Department of Water in relation to the costs to SDRC (and hence ratepayers) of the T2W pipeline.  In short, there will be no fixed bulk water supply charges on water provided by Seqwater for a period of 10 years and to further assist with affordability the Premier approved a grant to SDRC which would reduce the operating and maintenance costs for a 10 year period from $560,000 per annum to $305,000 per annum.

Next up, that old chestnut Emu Swamp Dam.  Mr Lister said

Given that [the T2W pipeline] is looking like $300-odd million I ask the question: why is the government persisting in building a pipeline from someone else’s scarce supply to the town that did not run out of water instead of spending half as much to build Emu Swamp Dam in the town that did run out of water—Stanthorpe …

A bit of a mix-up here from Mr Lister as he seems to be comparing projects with quite different purposes.  The T2W pipeline provides town water to a number of communities on the fringes of Toowoomba and drought-proofs Warwick, a town of 15,000 residents.  Emu Swamp Dam is an irrigation scheme for horticulturalists around Stanthorpe and while it may also provide urban water to Stanthorpe it would have been empty in the last drought.  Not really an either/or situation and given the latest construction estimate for Emu Swamp Dam is more than $240 million then it is certainly not half the cost of the T2W pipeline. 

However there is a lot in Mr Lister’s speech where we are in complete agreement and see eye to eye.  Such as

Given that the town of Stanthorpe did run out of water and for 16 months had to have drinking water trucked to Stanthorpe at great expense to the state government—and I do thank them for that—the water supply situation for Stanthorpe has not been dealt with …

It would be very sad to see Stanthorpe go through the difficulties it did before when it ran out of town water. Not only did it mean that the supply was restricted for the consumers in Stanthorpe, it had an adverse impact on the local economy because people from Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast who frequent Stanthorpe for the tourism experiences and B&Bs and so forth, in intending to do the right thing did not come because they were concerned about depriving us of our water. That really hurt local businesses and the local economy …

If Stanthorpe is to grow, if Stanthorpe is even to remain viable as it is now, it needs a solution to its water problem.

I absolutely agree.  I would venture a little further and suggest that perhaps one of the reasons that the water supply situation for Stanthorpe has not been dealt with is because our Mayor refuses to engage with any option other than Emu Swamp Dam.  I hope he has not persuaded Mr Lister to do the same, as we need the elected representative for Stanthorpe to advocate at the State level for options which would provide water to Stanthorpe during a drought.

That may be extending the pipeline from Warwick through to Stanthorpe, which on current estimates is about half the cost of Emu Swamp Dam.  But the answer is not, at least for the residents and businesses of Stanthorpe, Emu Swamp Dam because the modelling by the State government is absolutely clear that Emu Swamp Dam would have been empty in the last drought.

23 June 2023