Federal member for Kennedy Bob Katter says the prime minister has backed the wrong horse on the Hells Gates Dam project saying the proposed dam wall is too small.
Mr Katter was speaking after PM Scott Morrison went to Townsville on Wednesday to announce a $5.4 billion investment in the dam on the Burdekin river west of Townsville.
But Mr Katter has that unless the dam is built much higher then he would withdraw his support from the government.
"The Prime Minister's announcement today destroys the great Bradfield vision forever and proves that I have been flagrantly lied to," Mr Katter said.
"I am holding a letter from the Deputy Prime Minister, the person responsible for this project, saying that the dam will be built to 395m high. This is the height that will water Townsville and the height needed to go out onto the Western Plains (west of Hughenden). That was the undertaking agreed to in writing.
"But I have been lied to. The undertaking announced today doesn't go anywhere near that height. It might irrigate maybe a hundred or so farms along the waterbed. What's an extra 100 farms going to do for a city of 200,000 people?"
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Speaking at the media conference in Townsville, Mr Morrison said the smaller height "is the one that has been worked up and the detailed case studies" by the Townsville Enterprise.
Claudia Brumme-Smith CEO of Townsville Enterprise told the same conference the Dam needed to comply with the environmental regulations.
"Therefore the size that we have designed is the right size for this scheme and it is the state's largest dam ever being built," Ms Brumme-Smith said.
"It is massive, it will you know, almost irrigate 60,000 hectares of land. That's a big dam developments not only North Queensland, but for the nation."
However Mr Katter said the $5.4 billion cost could not be justified in a million years unlike his vision of a larger dam.
"A dam to 395m would provide all of North Queensland's electricity - clean, green, with no C02 emissions, the entire base load will be carried from the Upper Burdekin Irrigation Scheme (UBurIS) which has always been what everyone has agreed to," he said.
"The person responsible for this "announced" project did not consult to anyone even remotely associated with the Revised Bradfield Scheme.
"What the PM has proposed is built as a low dam. A very low dam. There is not enough height to syphon the water. The dam is so low that it can't ever get through the Great Dividing Range via a break in the Range."
Mr Katter said he had attempted to contact he Prime Minister several times today to raise these concerns and had not received a returned call. He said that he would have to consider his options in relation to how much support he will throw behind the Government moving forward.
"I've given the Prime Minister my support. I've given him loyalty. And I've been flagrantly lied to," he said.
"He expected me to be jumping up and down with excitement on this, but he was badly mistaken."
Mr Morrison said the government would work constructively with Mr Katter.
"Another very important project up here which we've been working closely on, and that's the CopperString project (which) is going to unlock the western minerals province of North Queensland and the Hughenden Irrigation Scheme is another one that we've committed to and that was working directly with Bob," the prime minister said.
"(I) love Bob, but it's not about Bob and Bob would agree it's not about Bob. What it's about, it's about the jobs, it's about the agriculture."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
