Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week visited Rockhampton to play weatherman.
He warned us all that Queensland would get longer and worse droughts over the next 40 years due to climate change.
I struggle to believe the weather forecast for next week, let alone for the next 40 years, but Jim seemed earnest, so let’s take him at his word.
What is more concerning than the long-term weather forecasts is the complete lack of a plan to do something about it.
Jim is not a weatherman. He is the Treasurer, responsible for a budget of over $600 billion per year. If he really believed his own warnings of more droughts why isn’t he building dams to help us get through these impending dry spells?
Instead, in his first budget, the Treasurer cut over $6 billion of funding to build new dams in Queensland. The former Liberal-National Government had funded the Hells Gate Dam in North Queensland, the Urannah Dam in Central Queensland and the Emu Swamp Dam near Stanthorpe. They have all been put back on the shelf now.
Dams are a simple concept. Dams store water during wet times (like it has been over the past few years) and then help deliver water during dry times (like it looks like it will be this summer).
Dams are, in effect, an insurance policy against the worst effects of drought. So if you are worried about more droughts, we should buy more insurance by building more dams. Instead, the Labor government is doing the opposite.
The last Liberal-National government built the Rookwood Weir, which is now almost complete. It will be just the second major water storage on the Fitzroy River to support farming, and will help double agricultural production in the region.
Extra and more consistent food production will help keep food prices low. Australian families are already struggling with higher petrol prices and rising interest rates. The upcoming El Nino may even put greater pressure on grocery bills if water availability is cut to farmers.
During the last drought Queensland graziers had to ship grain from Western Australia, and even overseas, to keep their cattle alive. The increased costs of doing this flowed through to higher meat prices at the butcher.
At the time of the drought there was plenty of rain in North Queensland. But we have not built many dams in Northern Australia so most of this rain went out to sea and there are not large grain producing districts in our north.
Dams like Hells Gate could change that and make a lot of sense given the often counter-cyclical weather patterns between our north and south. Sending grain from Cairns to Dalby is a lot cheaper than sending it from Perth or Canada. That would help to keep meat prices down during the next drought.
And the opportunities do not stop there. During the last Liberal-National Government, we asked the CSIRO to look at the options to build dams in Cape York. They concluded that new dams and water harvesting projects there could help open up 200,000 hectares of greater agricultural production.
That would be like bringing on two more Burdekins in Queensland of extra food production.
Not only would that help keep fresh food available and affordable in Queensland shops it would generate new economic opportunity in an area of great Indigenous disadvantage.
In the Government’s arguments for why a Voice is needed they often quote the shocking health outcomes for Indigenous Australians, especially those that live in remote regions like the Cape.
Australians want to fix this problem but the Government never really explains how an extra 30-odd politicians in Canberra would do anything to help.
What would help is more jobs and business opportunities in areas like the Cape. Instead, of acting like Chicken Little when it comes to climate change, the Government should act and help protect us from all changes to the climate whether man-made or not.
The next time the Treasurer visits regional Queensland he should bring investments in new dams not just warnings about the weather.
Dams make sense because they create jobs, increase our wealth and make sure that we can all afford the best Australian fresh food at a reasonable price.
