Stranded on a virtual island by the Queensland Government

Posted by Jim on April 24, 2010

It is the story out of a bureaucratic hell. Residents in Federal who were not bought out by the Queensland Government in the resumption of land for Traveston Dam are stranded on a virtual island.

Dr Jim McDonald, the Greens candidate for Wide Bay, said, “They are surrounded by the new route of the Bruce Highway between Curra and Cooroy, land owned by the Queensland Government bought up for Traveston Dam, and power lines.

“And after years of pea and thimble planning on the route, a highway designed to skirt what would have been the Traveston Dam has decimated their community.

“The Queensland Government decided with indecent haste on the route nearly two months before the Federal Minister for the Environment canned the Dam.

“Federal residents made it clear in submissions that they preferred upgrading the existing route. The Department of Transport and Main Roads has steamrolled the community.

“What is most appalling is how the Queensland Government through its departments has used tricksy bureaucratic devices, buck passing and generally avoiding its responsibility for the social impacts of the last six years on Federal residents.

“Bureaucrats and Ministers at both Federal and State levels don’t appear to be operating from any social impacts statement,” he said.

Dr McDonald added that the Queensland Government’s poor handling of land resumption for the Traveston Dam, even before it had been considered by the Federal Minister for the Environment, has escalated in the treatment of the surviving residents directly affected by the new route.

“I call upon the relevant State and Federal Ministers to sit down with these residents who have been cut off by the Highway and land resumption and negotiate a fair price as well as compensation for their appalling treatment so they can get on with their lives.”

Media Release, 23 April 2010