Liberals propose $9 billion water canal to Darling Downs ...

Courier Mail:

Bronwyn Bishop puts forward $9 billion water canal plan

10 June 2009

Former federal Liberal minister Bronwyn Bishop wants water pumped from north Queensland to the Darling Downs under a new project that draws parallels with a 70-year-old drought-proofing scheme.

Ms Bishop yesterday urged the Rudd Government to adopt a $9 billion above-ground, sealed canal plan that would involve water being pumped using solar power.

She said the model had been proposed by an Australian who helped devise a similar scheme in the US.

But Ms Bishop said it was not the Bradfield scheme – devised in the 1930s by John Bradfield, the designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge – which aimed to redirect surplus northern water underground to inland rivers linked to the Murray-Darling Basin.

Ms Bishop said the scheme would be more economical than the Government's current moves to buy back water from farmers.

But Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said the idea lacked common sense.

See - Wacky $9 billion water plan.