JOINT STATEMENT

Minister for Police and Corrective Services and Minister for Fire and Emergency Services

The Honourable Mark Ryan

Minister for the Environment and the Great Barrier Reef and Minister for Science and Youth Affairs

The Honourable Meaghan Scanlon

Assistant Minister for Health and Regional Health Infrastructure

Mrs Julieanne Gilbert

Generating opportunities out of the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan will be on the agenda in Collinsville today, as members gather for a fourth and final Mackay Isaac Whitsunday Regional Community Forum for 2022.

The latest Mackay Isaac Whitsunday Regional Community Forum will include presentations on the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan, regional economic development activities, and the Smart Transformation project - shaping the future of Moranbah and Dysart.

Forum members will also visit the planned Collinsville Green Energy Hub, a large-scale wind and solar project which, once constructed, will generate 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy, making it one of the largest renewable energy precincts in Australia.

Minister for Police and Corrective Services and Minister for Fire and Emergency Services Mark Ryan and Minister for the Environment and the Great Barrier Reef and Minister for Science and Youth Affairs Meaghan Scanlon will attend today's Forum in Collinsville.

Member for Mackay Julieanne Gilbert will chair the Forum.

Ms Gilbert thanked Forum members for their contributions throughout the year.

“Bringing together a range of voices from across the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday community, these Forums have inspired the creation of a new action plan, identifying new priorities, as well as short and long-term actions to be led by Forum members,” Ms Gilbert said.

“Forum members have also demonstrated their investment in the young people of this region, by providing input to the Queensland Youth Strategy, and articulating the key issues and challenges they face.

“Together, they’re helping unlock potential, to ensure our young people prosper, alongside our growing region.”

Ms Gilbert said the release of the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan had also underlined the huge potential for renewable energy growth across the Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday region.

“More than $1 billion has been invested in renewable energy projects across the region since 2015 – with that figure expected to climb to $7.8 billion by 2040.

“And as part of the Plan, the Queensland Government is investing a potential pumped hydro energy storage facility in the Western Pioneer Valley – the largest pumped hydro project in the world.

“This all adds up to more sustainable jobs and a stronger economy for Mackay Isaac Whitsunday.”

The Mackay Isaac Whitsunday Regional Community Forum is one of seven to be held in regional centres across Queensland tomorrow, with other Forums set for Western Queensland, Wide Bay Burnett Fraser Coast, Far North Queensland, Central Queensland, North-North West Queensland, and the Darling Downs South West region.

The Regional Community Forums are part of the Queensland Government’s Advancing Queensland’s Regions strategy, supported by the Office for Rural and Regional Queensland.

For more information about Advancing Queensland’s Regions, please visit campaigns.premiers.qld.gov.au/advancing-qld-regions/

ENDS

Media contact: Francis De La Cruz - 0420592078