THE left and right hands of the hustlers have a bit of trouble finding each other when it comes to the piece of string the Queensland government wants to stretch between the coastal town of Townsville and the inland mining belt of Mount Isa.The Coalition has confirmed it will not fund the project after appearing to announce it would.One Coalition frontbencher said supporters of the project had “stretched” an announcement on the project.In an interview with The North West Star in Mount Isa yesterday, Opposition infrastructure spokesperson Barnaby Joyce (pictured) said the Coalition would not fund the transmission line.“We are fully supportive of trying to make sure this line gets built. It's $1.7bln but let's be honest, we're not funding it. That's something people should clearly understand,” he said.Sen Joyce's comments directly contradict an announcement by Liberal National Party (LNP) senator Ian Macdonald.A press release from his office said “the Coalition has today promised to fund the $1.7bln Clean Energy Corridor”.LNP candidate for the Townsville-based seat of Herbert, Ewen Jones, also issued a press release announcing he had secured funding from opposition energy and resources spokesperson Ian Macfarlane for the project.Mr Macfarlane actually announced the transmission line could apply to a new fund the Coalition would set up to fund renewable energy projects.“What I announced was the CopperString project would be eligible under our $3.2bln direct action plan. But there's not guarantees (it would be successful),"” Mr Macfarlane told The North West Star yesterday.“Supporters of the project have stretched what I said,” he said.“We understand it's around $100million (that the project could receive) and on that basis it's well within the possibilities of this scheme.”Neither Sen Macdonald's or Mr Jones' press releases mentioned Mr Macfarlane's $100m funding figure nor that the project would have to apply to secure funding under a Coalition Government.Mr Macfarlane admitted his colleagues had gotten the announcement wrong.There was no ambiguity in Sen Joyce's comments. He said the Coalition would soon release policies that would make financing the project a more attractive option for business.“You will see proposals coming out in due course, I know because I wrote them, that will be of huge assistance in the financing of this project,” he said.“People who make money out of it fund it. People who sell power from it fund it. The people who are going to be buying the power off it might want to have a share holding in it.” Full story in June issue of Electrical World magazine.
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