Fully develop Gladstone ahead of other coal projects: MP
THE Port of Gladstone should be developed to its fullest extent before any further coal export terminals are developed along the Queensland coast, Member for Flynn Ken O'Dowd says.
Mr O'Dowd told Federal Parliament industry should be concentrated in certain areas, and places like Balaclava Island should be well and truly out of the question until Gladstone was fully developed.
Mr O'Dowd used a February 14 speech to shift the focus forward as major construction projects begin to wind up or scale back.
The Xstrata Wandoan coal project is believed to be on hold for the next four years and the Wiggins Island Coal Terminal was cut back to one loading berth from four.
"At the moment there's not a lot I can see happening after gas and this is where the balance is pretty critical," he said.
"It happened before in the boom and bust cycle where we saw the value of units and houses come down and people got their fingers burnt.
"We don't want to overbuild Gladstone and end up with an oversupply of housing in the future."
Mr O'Dowd said he wouldn't like to see coal ports along the coast for environmental reasons, but instead wanted them concentrated in certain areas.
"Gladstone is one of those areas… the city and its industry is ideally positioned to play a major role in research, development and comparative trials of new technologies.
"And it also ensures the ongoing industrial viability of Gladstone."
Mr O'Dowd said many lessons had been learnt from the pain of phenomenal growth.
"With that knowledge we head into the future not being as susceptible to making the same mistakes again."
He is on record saying he doesn't believe industrial development and protection of environmental assets need to be mutually exclusive.
"When we have a proven ability to manage a lot of these issues, we can start expanding elsewhere."
