Based on lies

By: James (Registered ) on 19-10-2007 05:00

There seems to be a lot of rhetoric but few facts in this article, so here is the real story. 
 
The reason for proposed road has nothing to do with traffic, it is all about opening up land next to Townsville for the development of heavy and toxic industry. If this road goes ahead it will allow for the development of industries like lead smelters and Alumina refineries to be built less than 10 km upwind of the Townsville CBD in a wetland area next to the Great Barrier Reef. The fact that the road isn’t needed to fix traffic problems is clearly demonstrated in this statement from attachment 4 of the preliminary information (Townsville Port Access Environmental Impact Statement Assessment Report prepared by the Director-General Queensland Transport) “While it is true that it is difficult to justify an Eastern Corridor on capacity grounds alone”.  
 
The Townsville Port Access Impact Assessment Study, Final Report clearly indicates that Option 1, the upgrade of existing road and rail infrastructure is not only the cheapest and most environmentally benign option, it is also all that is required to meet traffic and commodity volumes until at least 2025 (which was the extent of the modelling undertaken to identify projections of future traffic needs). 
 
This road is all about supplying big business with cheap industrial land next to a ready source of cheap labor (well much cheaper than if they developed these industries in say Mount Isa).  
 
You have to wonder why government bothers with Environmental Impact Assessments when they make political promises to fund projects before they have been assessed and approved.

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