Larvatus Prodeo

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has declined to give Anna Bligh’s Traveston Dam the tick of approval.

Bligh inherited this project from Peter Beattie, and I, and a lot of others, always thought its conception in the first place had been as a political wedge. It had a lot more to do with Beattie’s manoeuvrings to split the Libs and Nats in the lead up to the 2006 election than any rational assessment of how to ensure South East Queensland’s water supply into the future.

When still Deputy Premier, Bligh faced down many Mary Valley locals protesting the dam, and I wonder whether her reticence to admit the thing was a dud has something to do with that. I would hope not, but Bligh certainly hasn’t displayed the deftness in backing away from stupid and unpopular decisions (which state governments are often in the habit of making) that her predecessor had.

It’s a good thing that Garrett has nixed the dam, but the waste of time and money that could have gone into much smarter thinking about water futures, and the needless uncertainty and suffering caused to Mary Valley folk is most assuredly not.