PrintNo plans to dam the Daly River
Country Liberals Senator for the Northern Territory Nigel Scullion has squashed claims by the Federal Government that the Coalition has plans to dam the Daly River.
“I wish to make it absolutely clear that there are no plans to dam the Daly, said Senator Scullion.
“To put an end to the Labor nonsense, and end any possible confusion, I urge people to read where this issue started.
“For the record this whole sorry saga started from a page 1 story in the Weekend Australian dated Saturday 17/9/2011. The applicable paragraph is reproduced below:
A Coalition policy development taskforce headed by opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb is eyeing projects across the Top End, including the third stage of the Ord River project in Western Australia and the Daly River in the Northern Territory, and developing dams that have been on the drawing board in far north Queensland on the Gilbert and Flinders rivers.
“My Coalition colleague Mr Robb was not talking about damning the Daly River but dams in north Queensland.
“Again, I can’t say it anymore plainly – there are no plans to dam the Daly,” Senator Scullion said.
“This issue was raised by a Territory MLA – Member for Daly, Rob Knight – and it has been picked up by the Federal Government despite me speaking on this to various Northern Territory media* even before the Federal Government spoke on it.
“Labor has made this up and the clear lesson is that you simply cannot trust Labor.
“Labor called the idea crazy – what was crazy was trying to pin this made-up mix-up on the Coalition to try and score a few cheap political points and it has blown up in their faces,” Senator Scullion said.
*NOTE FOR MEDIA: Visit www.nigelscullion.com for radio interview transcripts from September 21 and September 20 about this issue.
