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Federal Defence Minister\u00a0Marise Payne<\/a>\u00a0has admitted in the Senate she knew of the Shoalwater Bay defence force base expansion in Queensland before the federal election in 2016. Ms Payne informed the Senate on Monday that she had been ‘preliminarily advised \u00a0in June’ of that year.<\/p>\n Expansion of the defence bases at Shoalwater Bay and Townsville to accommodate visiting Singapore defence forces reached peak anxiety this month. More than sixty generational landholders had been sent letters late last year by the Department of Defence informing them of compulsory\u00a0acquisitions.<\/p>\n The issue forced Deputy Prime Minister\u00a0Barnaby Joyce<\/a>\u00a0to fly to the region to speak to graziers but he did little to allay their fears. During an ABC radio interview on\u00a0the morning of Friday, February 3, 2017, Mr Joyce appeared to dismiss claims that there would be any forced acquisitions.<\/p>\n “At this point of time there is no intention of compulsory acquisitions and I don’t know whether there ever would be any compulsory acquisitions,” he said.<\/p>\n However, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull<\/a> later gazumped him in on a rival radio station by stating that compulsory acquisitions would only be a ‘last resort’.<\/p>\n Arriving that afternoon in central Queensland, Mr Joyce changed position saying that the government preferred acquisitions to be between willing sellers and willing buyers. He told graziers that hoped to be able to convince colleagues to call off the plan.<\/p>\n The division prompted exasperation from Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk<\/a>.\u00a0Having just returned herself from speaking to locals she accused the federal government of not knowing where the proposal was at.<\/p>\n “The federal government does not know from one day to one week what’s going on,” she said.<\/p>\n