Did I omit deflection? The gambit straight out of the LNP...

Did I omit deflection? The gambit straight out of the LNP songbook. I'll play.

If you suffer consternation about costed policies, then Morrison's and Joyce's Nation building Dams policy must cause palpitations. Nearly AUD6 billion budgeted without a supporting business case and no idea of actual costs let alone the cost to imaginary agricultural users. But there are coal operators in the Bowen Basin. That is not a contemptuous observation.

A regurgitation of the Bradfield vision that has repeatedly failed over the decades of periodic resurrection but at least it bought Barnaby Joyce's acquiesce to support the LNP climate targets. You know the one. The one that the LNP was dragged kicking and screaming to.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/25/pie-in-the-sky-coalitions-6bn-dams-pitch-puts-politics-before-process

" ... The dam proposals have not been scrutinised by the government’s own National Water Grid advisory board; the Hells Gates plan does not have an environmental impact study (no study is even in development); nor does it have a detailed business case, which is due for completion after the federal election. ...

... Despite this rosy sales pitch, concerns remain that the projects are uneconomic and would be environmentally damaging.

An analysis of the preliminary business case for the Urannah Dam, for instance, found the project could return as little as 26c for every dollar invested. ..."