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Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said there will be environmental objections to the dam “but we know that the future of this nation depends on us doing it”.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“All the state government has to do is get out the big stamp and go ‘approved’,” Mr Morrison said,speaking in Townsville. “We’re saying to them,100 per cent,we’ll fund it. You approve it. Let’s get on with it.”

The government also released a statement on Wednesday saying funding was “subject to the completion of the final stage of the business case,expected in June this year” – which would come after the federal election that is due in May.

When asked by reporters if the funding would remain committed to Townsville if the dam didn’t go ahead,Mr Morrison said:“we’re going to build the dam”.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said the project would be opposed by “green cynics”.

“There’s a moss,there’s a frog,there is a beetle,there is something that will stop it,but we know that the future of this nation depends on us doing it,” Mr Joyce said.

“All I know is under our government it’s going to happen. And we’re at the point of go now.”

Queensland Water Minister Glenn Butcher said the state would only support the project if it stacked up economically. “To put $5.4 billion on the table for a project that doesn’t even have a detailed business case together yet is a little bit embarrassing for the government,” Mr Butcher said.

Opposition environment and water spokesperson Terri Butler said Labor would consider any dam project “after seeing the business case and taking departmental advice”

“We haven’t seen a business case for this proposal – so we look forward to seeing one,” Ms Butler said.

Grattan Institute infrastructure expert Marion Terrill said announcing the project funding before the business case was a “corruption of the process”.

“If you invest then say ‘we’ll do the business case later on’,the person doing the business case is under no illusions about what the right answers are,” Ms Terrill said.

Ms Terrill pointed to the cost blow out of the Inland Rail as an example of how project budgets can grow in “risky and highly politicised projects”.

Construction has begun on the 1700-kilometre Inland Rail line,which will run from Melbourne through central Victoria,inland NSW and into Toowoomba. However,the final route through Brisbane to the port is yet to be finalised or funded.

It was announced by the Turnbull government in 2017 at a cost of $8.4 billion,but the Morrison government’s commitment has reached $14.3 billion. Mr Joyce last yearsecured an additional $5 billion to extend Inland Rail through Queensland coal country to Gladstone port,in return for the Nationals backing a commitment on net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The Great Barrier Reef is already dealing with the impacts of agricultural runoff.Credit:Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

The environmental impacts of Hells Gate dam have not been assessed.

A big expansion of cane production would have harmed water quality in the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef due to agricultural run-off of fertiliser,nutrients and sediments,according to the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s water quality manager,Jaimi Webster.

“50,000 hectares is close to one-sixth of the existing cane lands in the entire reef catchment,” Ms Webster said. “Such a rapid expansion of agriculture could quickly reverse the progress that farmers and governments have made through their investments in water quality.

The federal and Queensland governments have committed a total of $4 billion for reef conservation since 2019,including $580 million to improve water quality over the next decade.

Construction of the dam is expected to create more than 7000 jobs and inject up to $1.3 billion into the local economy. Irrigated agriculture is expected to support more than 3000 jobs and generate up to $6 billion in gross regional product.

A 2018 feasibility studyprepared for Townsville’s enterprise association found the cost of water entitlements to irrigators would be “well above those seen in established irrigation areas” such as the Murray Darling Basin.

To make the scheme economically viable growers would have to tap new markets for high-value horticulture exports,such as avocado,citrus,and premium vegetables,shipped from Townsville to South East Asia and Europe.

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