Pipeline pipe dreams

Peter Beattie has never governed for all Queenslanders. He is little more than the lord mayor of "Greater Brisbane". Where is the decentralisation policy in his plans for the state? He has just imposed his "Blueprint for the Bush" on the regions with minimal consultation and even less consideration of regional stakeholders' views. But effective decentralisation is still waiting by the phone.

And we must ask, are regional Queenslanders comfortable with the notion that they are merely caretakers of resources, not owners; in effect, minding the shop until the metropolitan power decides to take the resources from them? Only recently Mr Beattie passed legislation that effectively precludes any sort of development, let alone construction of dams and irrigation works, on the so-called "wild rivers" of the north.

They have also endured almost two decades of Labor homilies about dams for irrigation purposes being unsustainable. Farmers have had their existing water allocations reduced to ensure adequate "environmental flows" in rivers all over the state. Yet, the moment an urban water need is seen looming there are dam works implemented everywhere.

And let there be no doubt, every one of the dam wall augmentation projects that are now on the agenda in South East Queensland will involve a substantial diminution of these, once pre-eminent and absolutely “non-negotiable” environmental flow allocations.

Regional Queenslanders have solid grounds for concluding that there are two standards of acceptable environmental outcomes, one for the city and one for the bush. They have solid grounds for concluding that there are two standards applying to the justification of capital outlays by the state, one for the city and one for the bush. And they have solid grounds for concluding that there are two standards of acceptable socio-economic outcome for ordinary men and women, one for the city and one for the bush.

On one hand, no stone is left unturned to satisfy an urban desire that could be easily satisfied with a backyard water tank. While on the other hand, farmers can be deprived of their very rights and livelihood for the sake of supposedly critical environmental needs that are entirely discretionary in the city.

The momentum is building all over the bush to pitch it all back onto the urban community with the words, "if we must put up with two standards of governance then lets stop mucking about and formalise the situation with two separate states". And you can have as much daylight saving as you little hearts desire.