Home Hill News

Pipeline Project unaffected by Election Result

Pipeline Project unaffected by Election Result

THE change in Federal Government after the recent May elections will have no effect on the future of the Bowen Water Pipeline Project, with the developers of the pipeline, the Bowen Pipeline Company indicating that they were “fortunate that we have support from both sides of government, Federal and State”.

Responding to questions from The Home Hill News about the election result and its effect on the future of the project, Director of the Bowen Pipeline Company, Sean Brown said that firstly, “the LNP included our $80 million grant towards construction into the Federal Budget and that was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate”.

“For us to obtain the $5 million Commonwealth Grant for the Business Case and engineering design, we needed to secure support from the State,” he continued.

Mr Brown said that State Ministers, Glenn Butcher (Minister for Water) and Mark Furner (Minister for Agriculture) both supported the grant application and Minister 

Butcher met with their growers and business owners in Gumlu to announce the state’s support for their project. 

“As well, we have always had strong support from the Whitsunday Regional Council from Deputy Mayor Mike Brunker and Andrew Willcox (now the Federal Member for Dawson).” 

In the coming weeks, Mr Brown said they would be lodging an application with Burdekin Shire Council (BSC) seeking their agreement to use certain parts of the road reserves for their pipeline alignment. 

“We hope to secure the Mayor’s and Councillors’ support this time,” he said. “Once that is secured, we can lodge our application with the Coordinator General and the State and Commonwealth assessment process will start.” Mr Brown said the Company’s $300 million investment in the Burdekin Shire and Whitsunday Region “all rests on the BSC agreement to use the road reserves for our pipeline alignment”.