Letter to the Editor

Dear Mr/Ms,

Shane Knuth fought for the Tully Hydro even when he did not represent Tully. He was born in Tully, his father was a cane cutter in various northern towns.

The original ‘Tully Millstream’ proposal was promised by the LNP before the 1996 election and upon the LNP taking Government in 1997 it was abolished by the then LNP Energy Minister Tom Gilmore. It then resurfaced as the ‘Reverse Tully Millstream’.

The latest evolution, the ‘Southern Tablelands Development Scheme’ (STaDS), is the child of the Tully Millstream, but instead of Hydro being north of Tully, under the STaDS proposal it will be south of Tully and a very large irrigation development scheme is added.

Tully Hydro delivers no jobs. It would have been manned by existing Kareeya workers. A STaDS south of Tully does require manning and please God (and then we must ensure) the sugar liquor will come to Tully “off season’ for processing creating over 100 off season jobs for Tully.

The new scheme drawn up by Professor Stocker the Deputy Mayor of South Tablelands Council and father of Elise Nucifora - Nucifora’s have one of the biggest banana and sugar farms between Innisfail and Tully.

STaDS should deliver 600mgwts of hydro and pump storage power from a hydro station just South West of Tully.

The Snowy Mountains 2.0 is ineffective in providing security on the Nth Qld grid (1m people) since it is 5000km from Snowy Mountains 2.0. Line losses over that distance would be prohibitive. Hence the necessity for an adjunct to Snowy Mountains 2.0 - the STaDS proposal.

If added to the ‘triangle of power’ (Hell’s Gates Dam, Kidston Pump Storage (and Solar) and Big Kennedy Wind Farm) it will add 2,200mgwts of baseload and 300mgwts of peak hydro power.

Nth Qld then will be providing with its existing renewables, over 8% of the entire national grid. Adding to the existing 6% this will deliver nationwide 14% renewables. To go higher than 20% would jeopardise the cheap $28 @ mgwts hour coming out of existing coal fired power stations (versus renewables at over $90 @ mgwt hour).

It is the STaDS proposal which will provide;

300 mgwts of hydro peaking power and additionally, 300 mgwts of pump storage peaking power

300million litres of ethanol

300,000 tonnes of sugar (piped as liquor) down to the Tully Mill for processing

Fatten 500,000 cattle each year off algae ponds (grown from Co2 emissions which will be entirely ‘carbon captured’ in the algae ponds)

Shane Knuth quite rightly points out that the LNP were in office for three years (2012-2015) and The Member for Hinchinbrook was a Senior Minister of this Government.

We have been advised by Hansard that the Member for Hinchinbrook has never raised the issue of the Tully Hydro and has only on one occasion even mentioned Hydroelectricity in North Qld. Shane Knuth has raised the issue of Tully Hydro 7 times and this was before it was incorporated into the STaDS proposal.

Again Shane Knuth rightly points out that the Member for Hinchinbrook (in sharp contrast to Shane Knuth) was a Senior Minister in this Government and could have secured the Tully Hydro any time. He was one of the most powerful men in Qld (one of the inner group that ran Qld, the “gang of 6”).

The sheer hypocrisy of the man that when he was in this position to deliver, he did nothing.

Now, on the eve of an election when he can’t deliver it, he is running around promoting it.

Three times the LNP moved for ethanol when they were in Opposition; but when in Government, they wouldn’t even let us raise the matter in Parliament.

Shane Knuth quite rightly says that whilst we aint no angels, it’s our job to keep them honest, and that I say is bloody hard work.

The LNP are extraordinary people.

##ENDS##

(646 words)