Barnaby Joyce has earmarked close to $500m to build the Urannah Dam in central Queensland, despite the project not yet securing environmental approvals and several studies suggesting the idea is not economically viable.
The proposal, long championed by the Queensland Nationals, has been around since the 1960s and a number of feasibility studies have queried the viability of the project.
Environment groups said it was a commercial “white elephant” and there were legitimate concerns it could wipe out the remaining habitat of a rare freshwater turtle named after the late conservationist Steve Irwin.
The Morrison government has allocated more than $22m to cover costs associated with developing a business case and assessing the regulatory requirements. The water storage would aid agricultural production and also assist expansion of the coal industry in central Queensland.
The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, told the ABC on Thursday the project had already been declared a controlled action under national environmental law and would go through “a staged assessment process” which would first be considered by the Queensland government, then federally.
Ley insisted the central Queensland proposal would face the same scrutiny as any other project in Australia.
She said the approval would consider the impact of the proposal on threatened species and world heritage places close to the dam: “All of the steps will be taken. There is no stepping outside national environmental law on this or any other project.
“As a member of the Morrison government I make no apology for wanting to have infrastructure projects that balance the needs of communities, the environment, industry and our future,” she said.
When asked whether she could guarantee the project represented value for money for taxpayers given the project had been on the drawing board since the 1960s and the focus of more than 25 feasibility studies, Ley said: “That’s not a guarantee I can give on this program … I suggest you talk to the proponents.”
Asked whether the government was prepared to abandon the dam if assessment showed it failed to stack up environmentally or economically, Ley said: “We’ll take it one step at a time.”
The project proponent, Bowen River Utilities, is run by John Cotter Jr, a former member of the Liberal National party executive. Guardian Australia makes no suggestion Bowen River Utilities or any associated individual has acted improperly, or that the company and its proposal should not be eligible to receive federal grant funding.
The federal and Queensland government last month signed a bilateral agreement to develop the dam. At the time, the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, said it was a “significant step forward in delivering water security for the Broken River Valley” and Queensland’s water minister, Glenn Butcher, said funding tied to the agreement would enable the proponent “to progress its business case and other early investigations into the project”.
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Gavan McFadzean said several studies had concluded the dam would leave a huge cost burden to taxpayers, making it a likely “white elephant”.
He said it would have a devastating impact on the ecology of the Burdekin and Bowen river systems, and there were legitimate concerns it would destroy the only habitat used by the Irwin turtle, discovered by Steve Irwin and his father, Bob, in 1990, which made headlines for breathing through its bottom. Scientists believe there may be fewer than 5,000 Irwin turtles left.
McFadzean said the water from the dam would be used to service coal mining, not farmers, and traditional owners had raised fears the project would inundate areas of high cultural significance. “The Urannah Dam proposal is a relic from last century,” he said. “It would be bad for wildlife, for water supply, for heritage and for the climate.”
Tim Beshara, the policy and strategy manager with the Wilderness Society, said the dam announcement was “just more performative policymaking”.
“It’s half-a-billion in marginal seat virtue signalling for a project that doesn’t even have its environmental approvals yet,” he said. “It seems like we again entered another period of chest-thumping, chainsaw-starting, anti-environmental policy announcements from the Morrison government.”
Ley defended an announcement this week that the Morrison government would introduce 10 regional plans under national environment law that would remove the need for developments in some areas to receive project-specific approval. Conservationists fear the change could weaken nature protection.
The minister said suggestions environmental protection would be reduced showed a misunderstanding of the bioregional planning approach. “To suggest a bioregional plan is avoiding the [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation] Act is completely wrong,” she said.
Asked how the government could make it faster and easier for resources projects to be approved while also safeguarding the environment, Ley said the two elements were not mutually exclusive. “They can be at odds, but they don’t need to be at odds – that’s the point,” she said.
Dam proposals in other parts of the country have proved costly and environmentally controversial. In New South Wales, two projects, the Mole River Dam and the Wyangala Dam expansion, have been put on hold due to costs. A third, the Dungowan Dam near Tamworth, is moving ahead despite being described as flawed by the Productivity Commission.
The NSW government’s proposal to raise the Warragamaba Dam wall in Sydney’s west has been met with wide-ranging concerns, including from NSW officials, about its impacts on environmental and cultural heritage.
