Over the past few years many politicians have promised Central Queenslanders thousands of hydrogen jobs.
Just in April last year, the Prime Minister said in Gladstone that “…we have green hydrogen that will be so important in driving clean manufacturing through in the future.”
A year later those dreams seem dashed.
Just a few months ago around 90 people worked at Fortescue’s hydrogen facility just west of Gladstone at Aldoga.
Now just a few workers still have their jobs.
Last week I travelled to the site with the local Federal MP, Colin Boyce, to assess the damage.
State and Federal Labor Governments had announced $90 million of taxpayer funding for Fortescue (Twiggy Forrest’s company) to develop this site.
And, the place looks amazing.
There is a massive new shed.
There are new roads.
There are huge transmission towers with cables extending over mountain ranges.
And there are enormous water tanks connected by a pipeline that snakes its way over 100 kilometres north to Rockhampton.
Almost all of this infrastructure is now stranded.
Australian taxpayers have spent millions and all we have got for it so far is a shed, roads to nowhere and transmission towers that are not useful for much more than hanging clothes on.
The only thing larger than the massive transmission towers at the site is the colossal waste of taxpayer money that all of this involved.
The $90 million that governments had provided to Fortescue is just the start.
We are not exactly sure how much was spent on those transmission towers which were built by a state government owned agency, Powerlink.
Those towers send cables out to the massive solar and wind factories which were intended to power Fortescue’s hydrogen site.
They are now not needed and are a complete waste of money.
The water pipeline that was built from Rockhampton to Gladstone cost $1 billion and was partly funded by coal royalties.
As the then Labor Treasurer, Cameron Dick, said at the time “The Palaszczuk Government’s contribution towards this vital infrastructure for Central Queensland is the first investment from our new progressive coal royalty tiers.”
Those increased coal royalties are now threatening coal jobs but they will not deliver any of the hydrogen jobs that were promised.
Work on the pipeline seems to be continuing.
Colin and I saw cranes and workers completing the water tanks at the end of the route.
Hopefully, the water can be repurposed to help expand Gladstone industry.
That would be a better use than burning Australia’s scarce freshwater reserves and sending the hydrogen molecules to North Asia.
Who ever thought it would be a good idea to export freshwater from the driest continent on earth?
The water is only available thanks to the LNP championing the construction of the Rookwood weir and it was always intended for some of the water to go to Gladstone. However, there is no customer for the water at this stage, and it made no economic sense to spend $1 billion before one was ready.
It is interesting to compare Labor’s hydrogen hub with the LNP’s Rookwood weir.
Labor’s hydrogen hub was built to satisfy global demands to reduce carbon emissions.
The pristine white hydrogen shed sits as a massive white elephant as the expected hydrogen customers of North Asia realise it is way too expensive.
A recent hydrogen developer admitted that costs of producing hydrogen remain four times more expensive than gas.
The LNP’s Rookwood weir was built to secure our local needs for water and farming jobs.
There are 800,000 macadamia trees growing around the Rookwood weir now bringing a whole new industry to our region.
As they mature a new shelling plant will have to be built and Rockhampton is in the box seat for those 80 jobs.
This tale of two projects shows why we should focus public investments on solving local needs rather than respond to global fads.
We can not retrieve the money that has been wasted on the Gladstone hydrogen hub, but we should get to the bottom of how much has been spent.
