Fixing Mooloolaba Beach and Harbour Entrance

While the sand-pumping pipeline to replenish Mooloolaba Beach has been a success, more money and expertise needs to be made available to ensure maintenance dredging occurs around the Mooloolah River Mouth in a timely way and good information is available to the public about the conditions at the harbour entrance.

Recent safety concerns due to the build up of sand at the mouth of the Mooloolah River have highlighted the need for more investigation into effective upgrades to the dredging programme.  Maritime Safety Queensland have advised me that these include submerging the sand-pumping pipeline under the river channel to run from the Eastern wall so that dredging can take place without obstructing vessels entering and leaving the Mooloolaba Harbour entrance; and a mobile sand shifter to bolster dredging operations.

However recent media reports suggest that the Government are backing away from their commitment to investigate these options, claiming they were too costly.  I've called on the Minister to release the results of their investigations as it is vital that funding for timely maintenance dredging is available and ongoing and that the best expertise is applied to ensure the most effective options are utilised.

Restricted access to the harbour in the past has threatened the commercial fishing industry, and continually compromised the safety of our mariners. This is an important issue for our recreational boaties as well as our commercial operators and I will keep pursuing this.