USE WATER FROM THE NORTH TO SAVE THE MURRAY-DARLING BASIN
MEDIA RELEASE
Australia’s water woes will be solved not by demonising our farmers and destroying our nation’s agricultural sector but by investing in water infrastructure and using human ingenuity to overcome adversity.
Due to a total lack of vision from our major parties we are now seeing thousands of gigalitres of water from monsoonal rains flowing into the ocean off Northern Queensland, while the southern regions of Australia go without.
People don’t realise but if we simply collected roughly one weeks’ worth of the water currently going to waste, flowing into the ocean, it would be enough to supply every irrigator in the Murray-Darling basin with water for a year.
One Nation believes we need to undertake a comprehensive nation building project, known as the Hybrid Bradfield Scheme, to increase the water storage capacity of Northern Queensland, by building more dams and upgrading existing infrastructure, so that this additional water can be redirected towards the areas of Australia that need it the most.
By implementing this Hybrid Bradfield Scheme we could drought proof Central Queensland, help fix the water issues in the Murray Darling and offer new hydroelectricity projects for the country.
At last costing, the Hybrid Bradfield Scheme was set at $9 billion dollars. This is a pittance when the long term benefits of such a program are brought into the equation.
When you account for the amount of revenue that would be generated by the increased agricultural productivity and the additional power generated by the project, it would quickly pay for itself.
It will also create much needed jobs and grow the populations of our rural and regional communities.
It is time for people to accept our farmers are not the problem because they are more environmentally careful and more water efficient than at any other time in Australia’s history. They are part of the solution, not the problem and they need our support.
One Nation will again be taking this proposal for a Hybrid Bradfield Scheme as a policy to the next election.
We will deliver the nation building, water security infrastructure projects that this country is crying out for.
The other parties can have all the bridges and tunnels they want but if we don’t have the water infrastructure required for our survival our nation will starve.
