CABINET IN CONFIDENCE? RELEASE THOSE DAM DOCUMENTS NOW, ANNA BLIGH.

Don't Murray the Mary

Networker Tanzi

from the Save the Mary Co-ordinating Group

has forwarded the following Press Release:

Save the Mary River Coordinating Group

(STMRCG)

is the group leading the fight

to save the Mary River and Great Sandy Strait

from the damage of the Qld Government's

proposed Traveston Crossing dam.

We have been fighting

this proposal since April 2006

Tony Fitzgerald speaks out on increasing corruption in Queensland government and governance.

***MEDIA RELEASE Thursday July 30th, 2009

"RELEASE THOSE DAM DOCUMENTS NOW, PREMIER!"

Ninety-two percent of respondents to a Courier Mail Poll agree Tony Fitzgerald is right on the money in his scathing criticisms of the Beattie and Bligh governments practices – and the lead group in the fight to prevent the proposed damming of the Mary River at Traveston Crossing agrees with them.

Save the Mary River Coordinating Group President, Glenda Pickersgill said today that the group had experienced frustration and anger at the treatment it had received from the government during the last three years.

She called on the government to immediately release all the “Cabinet in Confidence” documents it had relied on to arrive at the decision to dam the Mary River. “The Beattie/Bligh decision was based purely on political expediency and would be a total waste of billions of taxpayer dollars if it was ever allowed to proceed,” Ms Pickersgill said.

“Let’s get all the information out there for the public to see so they can see what went on. After all, it was paid for by taxpayers” she said.

"It took a 4-day Senate Enquiry in mid -2007 to force the government to reveal some key reports that it had been denying to us. It also made the startling revelation that the desirability of the Traveston Crossing site was based on the briefest of desktop studies, many pages of which were either maps or blank. Many of the reports commissioned since then would appear to be predicated that they must come out in favour of the dam and the site."

"It really does seem that this government's approach is that a well-oiled (and well financed) media department will cover a multitude of shortcomings."

“It would seem that the people of Queensland are now echoing the cry that’s been ringing through the Mary Valley for these last three years, ‘Enough is Enough’.”

END

Contacts for Media: Glenda Pickersgill 0411 443 589. David Kreutz 0432 683 147 Darryl Stewart (Greater Mary Association) 0418 771 655

Website: www.savethemaryriver.com