Governments at all levels, and of all political persuasions, should facilitate the role of the private sector in our regional industries, writes Bowen Chamber of Commerce chairman Bruce Hedditch.
In my younger days, my Scottish grandfather Henry Robertson, who was an early wheat grower at Mitchell in Queensland, often said to me: “Australia is a wonderful country with so much potential. It is sad that governments and politicians are denying the country its full potential”. Now, later in life, I understand how true that statement was from the wise old Scot. Having come from Wagga Wagga and now residing in Bowen, North Queensland, I have seen how governments undervalue the contribution and potential of rural and regional Australia and the many achievements of its enterprising individuals and businesses.
However, governments have not always been so short-sighted. Some of our early governments showed great foresight in understanding Australia, its needs, and possibilities. In 1911 Australia’s fifth prime minister Andrew Fisher created the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for the newly established nation. The bank served Australia well, but in the 1990s the government under Paul Keating sold it for $8 billion. Today, the CBA has a market capitalisation of $213 billion. In 1916, under Billy Hughes, the Commonwealth Government established the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) to provide Australia with its own human blood products, insulin, and vaccines, because—at the time—Australia was isolated by war. In 1994, the Keating government sold the company for $299 million. Today, CSL has a market capitalisation of $142 billion.
Other great assets that earlier governments created include the Snowy Hydro Scheme, Telecom (now Telstra), The Pipeline Authority, and the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. But when you reflect on the past couple of decades, politicians have created nothing significant other than—arguably—the National Broadband Network (NBN), devised on the back of a drink coaster.
One element missing from governments and politicians today is a vision to make Australia grow, especially our vast regions. Transport systems, sporting arenas, tunnels, and bridges in populated cities do nothing to improve regional wealth; they are announced largely to shore up votes in densely populated city electorates. To illustrate this, the Queensland Government has announced a $2.75 billion infrastructure plan to construct 19km of dual rail track from Beerwah to Caloundra as the first stage of the Direct Sunshine Coast Rail Project. Yet water storage and dam projects to benefit the regions and help create wealth are being mothballed.
Nation-building projects create jobs and facilitate growth.
The region of North Queensland is centred on Townsville, extends to the Northern Territory border, and includes Mt Isa. This region covers more than 380,000 sq km and has a population of about 270,000 people. Central Queensland—which encompasses Rockhampton, Mackay, and Gladstone, and extends to the Northern Territory and South Australia borders—covers about 500,000 sq km and has a population of about 240,000 people. These vast regions are largely ignored by city-based politicians and bureaucrats.
Resources drive prosperity in North Queensland.Source: IPA
Underinvestment in transport infrastructure in regional Queensland has resulted in the Bruce Highway, the major motorway connecting the State’s regional centres, becoming one of the most dangerous roads in Australia and the absolute worst in Queensland. This is just one example of the State government’s many failures in regional Queensland.
Then we have the issue of dams, the lifeblood of rural Australia. In recent times, governments have had little political interest in constructing new dams for agricultural purposes. So, the huge rainfall in early 2024 across northern Australia will ultimately flow into the sea. What a disgraceful waste of a critical natural resource. The only dams the Queensland government is interested in are pumped hydro projects to prop up renewables. In Central and North Queensland, water is key to the development of horticulture and agriculture in our regions, and to the local communities that depend on these industries, together with mining.
The Urannah Dam, west of Mackay, was first proposed in the 1960s. More than 25 feasibility studies later, the government has simply shelved the project. This dam could provide water to support 25,000ha of productive agricultural land, as well as providing additional water to the Peter Faust Dam at Proserpine.
The Urannah project would be able to direct water westward to benefit agricultural and mining communities, and provide 1.4 GW / 8 GWh worth of pumped hydro storage capacity to support Queensland’s electricity network. Yet nothing has come of it.
Another mothballed water infrastructure project is Townsville’s Hells Gate Dam. That proposal was to transform 60,000ha of dry cattle country into an irrigated food production area; but this too has now been abandoned. The federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has been a vocal champion of the project, even recommending a larger water storage scheme.
Since taking office the current Federal Government has scrapped $6 billion worth of dam projects in Queensland and instead allocated $4.75 billion to major urban and rail projects in south-east Queensland. Rather than harnessing the long-term potential of rural and regional areas of Queensland, it has pandered to the immediate interests of inner-city voters.
The Bowen region produces 20 per cent of Australia’s vegetable crops and is renowned for tomato and mango production, as well as other horticultural produce. Currently the value of its fruit and vegetable produce is estimated to be $650 million per annum.
But again, issues around the availability of water retard its growth.
The private sector, on the other hand, has leapt into action to address the situation by proposing a 110km underground mainline water pipeline, commencing 16km upstream from Home Hill (Burdekin River), travelling south to Abbot Point and then on to Bowen. According to the Home Hill Chamber of Commerce, the project is backed by around 40 investors, the majority being Bowen and Burdekin locals.
Coal is essential to lifting people out of poverty.
The National Water Grid estimates the project would support up to 205 construction jobs and increase horticultural production in the region by $300 million per annum, benefitting a region spanning 55,000ha north of Bowen.
The project will use world-class Australian technology for the onsite extrusion of the high-density polyethylene pipes, each stretching more than 100m, generating a reduction of some 4,000 B-double truck movements delivering pipes, and providing a 45 per cent cost saving to the project.
The Bowen Pipeline Company has been trying to progress this project since 2018. Why these nation-building projects cannot access a more favourable path to approval is something governments at all levels should address urgently. These projects create jobs and facilitate the growth of industries that, over time, earn billions of dollars for communities and governments. Fast tracking them should therefore be a priority for governments. But water pipeline, dam, and gas pipeline approval processes are continually delayed by protracted environmental studies and by ‘lawfare’ designed to render the projects unfeasible. This is impeding development in the bush and places a question mark over the very existence of communities in regional Australia.
To the west of Bowen is the mining town of Collinsville; a community that has been mining coal for domestic and overseas markets for more than 100 years. Over that century, the community relied on the coal-loading facility at the Bowen Jetty, which locals are desperately trying to save because of its cultural and historical significance. The jetty serves as a reminder of the importance of the port of Bowen to North Queensland—and the role of coal mining in the economic development and prosperity of the state.
In 1968 the Collinsville Power Station commissioned four 30MW steam turbine units, fuelled by coal from nearby open cut coal mines. A 60MW steam turbine was subsequently installed in 1976. The purpose of the Collinsville Power Station was to generate electricity to Central and North Queensland, and the transmission infrastructure remains to this day.
In December 2012, the 180MW Collinsville Power Station ceased operation. Today, in its place, lies a 42.5MW sea of solar panels belonging to a solar factory that benefits from $9.5 million worth of grant funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, as well as $60 million worth of senior debt financing from the taxpayer-owned Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
The rise of climate ideology is denying regional Queensland of opportunities for economic development, and the highly-paid and stable jobs that go with it—as well as reliable and cost-effective electricity.
Just west of Collinsville, a gas pipeline currently transports 108 terajoules of natural gas per day from the Moranbah Gas Project in the Bowen Basin to Townsville. The construction of a lateral pipeline, branching off from the current pipeline to Collinsville, to serve a gas-fired power station at the site of the decommissioned Collinsville Power Station ought to be considered. If feasible, the site could provide affordable and reliable electricity, using the existing transmission infrastructure, to parts of regional Queensland. In addition, the expansion of gas capacity would help address the increasing supply volatility which has arisen from the rapid uptake of wind and solar in recent years.
Under this initiative, the gas lateral could be extended by 105km to Abbot Point to provide this unique, strategically important industrial area with the natural gas that will prove so important to local industries. And if the Bowen Pipeline Company can gain approval to construct its water infrastructure from the Burdekin to Bowen, then Abbot Point will be able to offer valuable resources to a multitude of Queensland’s key industries for decades to come.
While the Bowen region has many iconic industries and industrial sites, the Abbot Point coal port, 25km north of Bowen, is considered the jewel in our crown. The port was established by the Queensland Government, is currently owned by the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation and has been leased since 2011, for 99 years, to Adani Ports.
The Bravus Mining and Resources Company, another part of the Adani Group, operates the Carmichael Open-cut Coal Mine in Central Queensland’s Galilee Basin, with all of the coal mined being delivered to Abbot Point. The Carmichael mine, together with the associated rail operation, has provided Central and North Queensland residents with opportunities rarely seen before—another example of what can be achieved by the private sector.
But it took the company a decade to gain approvals before mining at Carmichael could begin, and it was subjected to outrageous and completely unsubstantiated claims by environmental and anti-mining groups, mostly headquartered in Australia’s big cities. Among these groups were elected politicians, representing the interests of inner-city constituents.
These people should hang their heads in shame for participating in a campaign notable for its blatant mistruths.
The Carmichael mine was opposed purely because it is a coal mine; the politicians, lobbyists and demonstrators who opposed it refused to acknowledge the reason for the mine, which is to provide coal for the generation of electricity in India, where 300 million people live without access to electricity. Coal is essential to lifting people out of poverty. What right does any of us have, especially politicians—with their taxpayer-funded pay packets, lifelong benefits, and air-conditioned houses—to tell poverty-stricken families in India that we would rather keep our coal buried than provide them with the most basic comforts in their homes.
The private sector has led the charge for our regions.
During the campaign to halt the Carmichael mine, politicians and environmentalists made the argument that the mine will endanger the black-throated finch. Since gaining approval for the mine, Bravus has conducted considerable research into finch numbers and successfully conserved and managed the finches’ natural habitat in the region. The success of the program has attracted the interest of Australian universities and government agencies.
The Carmichael mine provides employment for up to 750 people at any one time on-site and has a 500-bed accommodation village for the workforce. It boasts the Labona Airport, which services flights to and from Townsville, Rockhampton, Mackay, and Cairns.To move coal from the mine to port, Bravus has created the Bowen Rail Company, based in Bowen, which employs 180 staff working across all aspects of its rail network. The company, with brand new locomotives and wagons, operates the Carmichael Rail Network: a 200km railway connecting the Carmichael mine, 160km north-west of Claremont in Central Queensland, to the Newlands Rail System.
The coal transported from the Carmichael mine is delivered to the North Queensland Export Terminal at Abbot Point and is then exported overseas. Abbot Point Operations, which operates the terminal, is staffed by a workforce of more than 400 from Bowen, with trades being the predominant occupational classification but with a great cross-section of male and female workers.
Abbot Point Operations has a commendable history of environmental custodianship. In the early 1980s, a group of Bowen residents decided to construct a levee on a dry salt pan at Abbot Point to attract migrating ducks. When Abbot Point Operations were given the lease of the complex in 2011, it transformed this area into a wetland haven for migrating bird life. The success of this project is attributable to Abbot Point Operations’ efforts, and this dried salt pan is now known as the Caley Valley Wetlands, a rich wildlife sanctuary.
Bowen is moving towards a golden era but unless governments of all persuasions recognise the importance of Central and North Queensland, together with all other regions of this great State, then the golden goose could easily fly to other parts of the world. In the financial year ending 2023, mining contributed $18 billion in royalties to the Queensland Government. These royalties support education, roads, health, and law and order—but, once again, these huge royalty payments seem to support the Southeast corner of Queensland more than the regions.
Ironically, when the Queensland government restructured royalty tiers so as to maximise its take in June 2022, Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick stated: “Importantly, we will be investing all of this money, and more, in delivering better infrastructure for regional Queensland”.
In November 2022, as resource companies reconsidered the viability of projects as a result of the new royalty structure, the Queensland Resources Council issued a media release detailing the threat posed to investment and jobs. It concluded: “The government’s short-sighted decision to impose the world’s highest royalty tax rates on Queensland coal producers will have far-reaching implications for the resources sector and its ability to continue to underpin the Queensland economy.”
Resource companies pay their more than 60,000 Queensland miners $7.4 billion in wages. They support approximately 16,000 Queensland businesses. And they contribute to more than 1,400 Queensland charities and sporting clubs. Attacking the resources sector in Central and North Queensland is akin to attacking Queenslanders and Queensland’s regional communities.
In contrast to governments, which hinder and criticise the industries which support our regions (while happily taxing them to death), the private sector has led the charge for our regions, with agriculture and horticulture being at the forefront. But in recent years, coal mining has stepped forward and it is now providing extraordinary opportunities for our region and its people. Never before have we witnessed opportunities on this scale.
What is required to build regional Queensland, and Australia more broadly, to its full potential are visionary leaders. They need to make the necessary decisions to benefit Queensland and Australia for decades to come, rather than merely worry about the current election cycle.
We need politicians of conviction rather than slaves to political convenience.
Bruce Hedditch is the owner of the Larrikin Hotel at Bowen and chairman of the Bowen Chamber of Commerce.
This article from the Winter 2024 edition of the IPA Review is written by Bowen Chamber of Commerce chairman Bruce Hedditch.
