'Pie in the sky': Coalition's $6bn dams pitch puts politics before process

Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce are touting themselves as nation-builders to Queensland marginal seats that swung its way last electionGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingThe idea of building a massive dam in Queensland's Burdekin rangelands has been revived and then scrapped, over and over again, for more than 80 years.The site known as Hells Gates was first surveyed for a dam by the engineer Jack Bradfield in 1938. Bradfield, who built the Sydney Harbour Bridge, thought he could irrigate the Queensland interior and change the arid climate of central Australia (an idea that has been largely debunked by scientists) by diverting northern floodwaters to the west of the Great Dividing Range. Continue reading...