Queensland awoke Sunday morning 13 September to an announcement from Premier Anna Bligh that the proposed Traveston dam near Gympie was approved and construction would begin by January.
Based on a media statement released exclusively to the Sunday Mail, the resultant front page article brought shock, and an even firmer resolve, to supporters of the Save the Mary campaign.
Reading more closely, what really happened was far less dramatic, a protest meeting called at short notice for the afternoon in Kandanga was told.
“Today’s news is not a big deal. Despite the media fanfare this is not the environmental impact statement going to [the federal environment minister] Peter Garrett, for approval, it’s a draft of the possible conditions. Even the government media release states that what they have sent to Canberra is the draft set of proposed conditions,” Steve Burgess said to about 200 Mary Valley people.
He called it “just spin”. In a phone link-up with our station, Diet Simon also heard from Glenda Pickersgill, the coordinator of the Save the Mary River campaign.
Glenda Pickersgill is a cattle farmer in the valley whose land would go under if the dam were built.
The Sunday Mail article went on to promise construction would begin in the new year, pending federal approval, in a style reminiscent of former Premier Peter Beattie’s claims in 2006 that the “bulldozers would be rolling by Christmas”.
The protesters heard that like that statement, this one was another media stunt, but one welcomed by the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group, this premature announcement suggesting approval may well have backfired.
It was widely interpreted as the government’s attempt to regain the front foot after a bad week in the media in terms of health, education and the continuing fall-out of the Gordon Nuttall corruption case.
Diet talks to David Gibson
David Gibson is the Member for Gympie in the Queensland parliament and a passionate campaigner against the Traveston dam proposal. He told Diet that Anna Bligh’s making the announcement exclusively to the Sunday Mail was a ruse to distract attention from other issues as she marked her second anniversary in the job.
All photos with thanks to Brigitte Simon-Enderl
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