The floods which devastated Queensland and large parts of N.S.W. and Victoria raised obvious questions about the roles played by dams such as Wivenhoe Dam in flood mitigation and the management of water more generally.

These events also brought into focus the fact that governments at all levels for the best part of three decades have in many instances avoided options for new dams and other water infrastructure projects.

The bitter fight over the Franklin Dam in the late 1970s an early ’80s galvanised the anti-dam lobby and resulted in major dams being all but removed from the agenda, due to the political risks associated with them.

As a result many opportunities have been missed to pursue projects that would enhance water security, help to mitigate floods, generate low emissions energy and perhaps most importantly to grow our economic prosperity and productive capacity.

The Coalition under Tony Abbott’s leadership decided it was time to stop bowing to political correctness and investigate options for dams and other water management projects across the country.

The Coalition’s Dams and Water Management Task Group was established in January of 2011 to undertake this important work.

Policy and Media Downloads

• Taskforce tests the water download
• Dammed if we do, dammed if we don't download
• Gillard 'ducking dams debate' download
• Coalition invites Brown on board download
• Brown's brief to Coalition: no dam rush download
• We must dam this green madness download
• Dammed if they do win download
• Experts slam northern food bowl idea download
• Senator calls for dam action download
• Water storages need to be part of our infrastructure plan download