Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says the way in which residents of the Pioneer Valley found out about the nearby pumped hydro project is “absolutely unacceptable”.
“I’ve spent my political career looking for dams and sites and we’ve never heard, no one had ever heard of this Burdekin-Pioneer pumped hydro project until waking three weeks ago and reading about it in the newspaper,” Mr Canavan told Sky News Australia.
“And what was more shocking is that people are looking at losing their homes, their livelihoods, they too found out about it through the news.”
Mr Canavan criticised the Queensland government’s investment into the project as “they did not have a single official or minister set foot here in the Pioneer Valley to look at the site until a committed $12 billion”.
“The Queensland government is spending money like a drunken sailor right now. This sort of attitude has to stop because we’re getting way too much into debt.”
