AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2006
Qld: Beattie warns farmers over water crisis
TOOWOOMBA, Qld, Aug 23 AAP - Farmers in Queensland's fruit and vegetable bowl may be
paid to stop working their land if the water crisis in the Lockyer Valley continues.
Premier Peter Beattie today warned the action could be a drastic measure as Queensland's
south-east faces its worst drought on record.
Without substantial rain in the next six months, some farmers will see their allocations
cut to zero to ensure there is enough drinking water for towns and cities.
Plans are under way to pump recycled sewage from Brisbane's Luggage Point works to
the region, but the pipeline may take another two years to complete.
But Mr Beattie said the government had other options up its sleeve if the drought dragged on.
"If the Armageddon situation continued and it didn't rain in 2007, then we might have
to actually pay them not to farm for a year," Mr Beattie told reporters in Toowoomba.
"Now I think that is a last resort, but I want Queenslanders to know that we have a
whole lot of tough Armageddon-type solutions in our bottom draw if we reach a crisis position.
"I think people would want us to be prepared if it didn't rain.
"I don't think this is going to happen, but it is drinking water."
Mr Beattie said any farmers affected by such a move would not be financially disadvantaged.
"We would do it on a farm by farm basis," he said.
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said Labor was to blame for the water crisis.
"This would never had happened under a coalition government. We would have built the
water pipelines, we would have built the dams," he told reporters in Cairns.
"But now because of Mr Beattie and this government's neglect we've not only got a water
crisis, but we are going to have a fruit and vegetable shortage and we are going to have
an electricity crisis as well."
AAP pjo/sc/evt/de
KEYWORD: POLL QLD FARMERS
) 2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
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