9 August 2014
Daily Mercury
FEDERAL Member for Dawson George Christensen said he had not signed the submission on the Green Paper on northern development as he disagreed with some of the assertions made, and did not believe it was the best way to go.
“I sympathise with Capricorn Enterprise as there is some neglect for the Rockhampton region,” he said.
“However this is definitely not true for the Mackay region.
“The Mackay region has not been left out, the Parliamentary Committee (Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia) has been here, the Prime Minister’s taskforce has visited, the Urannah Dam proposal, Port of Mackay and Abbot Point are in the Green Paper.”
Member for Whitsunday Jason Costigan said he’d not been approached to sign the submission but said northern Australia, “was not all about Townsville or Darwin”.
He said the proposed Urannah Dam project, 90km west-north-west of Mackay would pave the way for 30,000ha of irrigated farm land and open up opportunities in the largely undeveloped north Bowen Basin as well as the fledgling Galilee Basin. “Unless we get smarter and motivated, the north won’t reach its potential,” Mr Costigan said.
Mackay and Isaac Regional councils have provided their own submissions as part of a formal response to the federal government’s Green Paper for northern Australia.
The Whitsunday Regional Organisation of Councils (a collaboration between Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday councils) also made a submission to further support how best to economically strengthen the entire region.
Mackay mayor Deirdre Comerford said increased investment across the region would help develop and build on our natural and physical assets.
Isaac mayor Anne Baker said jobs and new investment remained the number one priority in all submissions on northern development.
Courtesy of the Daily Mercury