Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A person from North Strathfield looking at the central western New South Wales floods the other day said, 'There's no need to build dams or heighten the dam wall, just build better roads so that the people in Forbes can have a quicker evacuation plan.' That really is a city centric thinking. As a regional member, sometimes you come to expect that of our metropolitan friends, who we feed, who we clothe. And sometimes there is a level of disrespect about the job that we do in a rural, regional and remote Australia. But when that person from North Strathfield happens to be the shadow spokesperson for water in the New South Wales parliament you get a bit concerned. Rose Jackson MLC should know better.

I don't often come into this federal parliament and talk about the state opposition members, because I don't want to give them the credit that they do not deserve. At a time when regional communities are reeling from the flooding that has wiped out a town like Eugowra—it has now peaked four times this year. If you count them as separate floods then it's eight times in the last 12 years—and that's Forbes, that's on the Lachlan. I get a little bit tired of those sorts of comments and I know the people of Forbes do.

Next March, on the 25th in fact, they get an opportunity to tell Rose Jackson and the potential Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns that they aren't going to cop that sort of treatment from Macquarie Street. If that sort of comment is emblematic of what state Labor thinks, then if you are casting a vote in central western New South Wales next March you would have to be a masochist or an idiot to vote for Labor quite frankly. I am really disappointed that Chris Minns isn't coming onboard and wanting to raise the height of Wyangala Dam by 10 meters, which would add 650 gigalitres of capacity to that vital piece of water infrastructure.

When I was Deputy Prime Minister the loan facility was available for the New South government at $325 million. The $650 million bill provided 650 additional gigalitres of water. The NSW government then wanted it as a grant. Then they said it was going to cost a whole lot more, potentially $1 billion. 'Get me the costings,' I said. Then it became $2 billion or thereabouts. But if you ask Scott Darcey, a farmer from Bedgerabong, who is absolutely sick and tired of getting his farm waterlogged by the Lachlan, then it is an investment. I agree with him. It is an investment in Forbes's future, in making sure that the Newell Highway doesn't get flooded and doesn't get closed. It was not that many years ago that it was closed for several weeks. Sections have been closed in recent weeks, in recent days. It's not good enough. It's certainly not good enough for Rose Jackson to say to the people of Forbes, 'You don't need your dam to be raised. You just need better roads so you can evacuate from your town.' How insensitive. How uncaring. There's a lack of empathy. It's a bit comparable to a CEO of an airline company who says, 'We're not going to worry too much about our planes or safety. We've got the best parachutes money can buy. Just strap one of those on your back and jump out if the plane gets into trouble.' This is nonsense.

The Tasmanian government can build dams. It's a Liberal government. When I was Deputy Prime Minister they built the Camden Dam in north-east Tasmania. It's part of the Scottsdale Irrigation Scheme. It has a capacity of 9,300 megalitres—not a big holding. As the member for Braddon will tell you, because he supports water infrastructure, it is a vital piece of infrastructure in that state, which I am reliably informed holds 26 per cent of the nation's freshwater.