Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pledged $5.4 billion to build the Hell’s Gate mega dam in Queensland as he tours the state promising the project will provide jobs, water, and food security for the region ahead of the federal elections expected by May. Hell’s Gate Dam is expected to be four times the size of Sydney Harbour and is hoped to capture the country’s seasonal monsoonal rains and open up 60,000 hectares of agricultural lands in North Queensland. “This is one of those projects that transforms the nation,” Morrison told Seven’s Sunrise program on March 23. The 2,100 gigalitre dam is anticipated to provide irrigation across three agricultural zones in the Burdekin, and bolstered by three downstream irrigation weirs. Touting a jobs boom for the region, with several thousand during construction and 3,000 ongoing once operational, the prime minister said the dam will turn North Queensland into an agricultural powerhouse, enabling …