THE Coalition will consider building up to a dozen dams and irrigation schemes in northern Australia.
The dams, on rivers including the Burdekin, Broken, Bowen, Flinders, Gilbert and Walsh, feature among 100 proposals listed in a draft discussion paper leaked to the media and which will form the starting point for a Coalition water management policy ahead of this year's federal election.
It is understood another controversial plan, building a dam and hydro scheme on the Tully-Millstream catchment, will also be revisited, The Townsville Bulletin reports.
Townsville-based LNP Senator Ian Macdonald yesterday stressed the discussion paper was not yet Coalition policy but said they would stare down a likely outcry from conservationists.
"For the last 20 years, if you mentioned the word dam, you have been pilloried as if you were a paedophile, you are an environmental vandal ... but we should be able to make sensible decisions for Australia."
In North Queensland, water storages would be used to irrigate land for crops and to drive turbines for hydro-electricity. Of the dam, irrigation and hydro proposals, six are on the Burdekin River. The dam proposals are at Mt Foxton, Hells Gate, Mt Full Stop and Greenvale.
A second stage of the Burdekin Falls Dam, which would include a hydro scheme, and an extension to the Elliot Main irrigation channel are also included.
There are proposals for dams at Mt Sugarloaf and Eurana on the Broken and Bowen River catchment, west of Mackay, while in northwest Queensland other schemes are suggested on the Flinders River at Mt Beckford, on O'Connell Creek, on the Gilbert River at Green Hills and the Nullinga dam proposal on the Walsh River.
Senator Macdonald said the final document would be released for public feedback within weeks which would allow the party to formulate a policy before the election.
"Our policy will be a practical blueprint for the future," he said.
Queensland rural and regional Greens spokesperson Jenny Stirling said the dam proposals were not backed by science and believed suggestions they would mitigate against flooding were ludicrous.
"The reality is the landscape is too flat, too worn, and not suitable for dams," she said. "A renewable energy corridor between Mount Isa and Townsville would be the best thing Tony Abbott could do."
North Queensland MP and Katter's Australia Party founder Bob Katter said the LNP would not deliver the projects. "You can't make any money out of dams, and you can't make money out of farming - but you can make money out of ethanol."
Read more at the Townsville Bulletin
