Hands off our water, says Ballina MP
Moves to dam the Clarence River and supply water to south-east Queensland received another setback this week.
Shadow Minister for North Coast and Member for Ballina, Don Page, ruled out damming the Clarence and diverting water into Queensland when the issue was debated in State Parliament this week.
Mr Page said there is no reason why the Clarence community should ‘carry the can for the poor planning of the Queensland Labor Government’.
“The Northern Rivers is a rapidly growing area. We have a population growth of around 3% per annum, with many more people coming to our region. We will need all the water we have for drinking, agriculture, fishing, tourism and to sustain our industries and environment in this area,” he said.
Mr Page also said that wherever possible each catchment should be treated on a sustainable basis so that water did not have to be diverted hundreds of kilometres to sustain distant catchments who hadn’t properly planned their water needs.
He urged the Queensland Government to look at recycling more water to sustain south-east Queensland.
