State Shadow Minister for Water, Housing and Homelessness, Rose Jackson has been visiting the Far West to hear what locals have to say and she reckons, “people are angry and frustrated with government, I think it is really important to show up and talk to them.”
Ms Jackson said she was visiting Broken Hill region as a part of an effort to consistently engage with regional communities.
There’s no doubt that with a State election looming – it’s on March 25 – politicians and would-be pollies are increasingly beating a path to our doors.
“There has been a lot of frustration out in the communities I have been visiting about the government’s water management,” Ms Jackson told the Barrier Truth.
“The reality is that flood plain harvesting proposals have not taken into consideration the needs and interests of communities around here as much as they should have, that’s why we have been voting to disallow them.
“Things like the trigger levels in the Menindee Lakes were inadequate and did not ensure that there would be good river connectivity, so I can understand the frustration of communities here, that they feel that they were not being listened to by government.
“I am worried that the government is going to proceed with new regulations and new licences in the January/February period when parliament is not sitting before the election.
“I think that that is a genuine source of concern.
“A number of the projects around here, whether it’s the Wilcannia Weir or other projects on the lakes, they have been a long time coming with lots of delays.
“Some of that has been the impact of flooding but some of it has not been a priority, it hasn’t been on the top of the to-do list for the government, they have been deprioritising it and so the work hasn’t been done.
“Communities are rightfully very frustrated that projects are being announced, re-announced, and re-announced again as though they are new and it is just because they have been delayed.
“There is all this fanfare and talk when they are announced and re-announced but there is nothing happening on the ground.
Ms Jackson also visited the Menindee region.
“Menindee is a community that has dealt with the lakes drying, mass fish kills and all that sort of horrendous mismanagement years ago. Although drought was a part of that it was more than that.
“Water was being over extracted in the northern areas and river connectivity was just not prioritised in a way it should be.
“Now they’re dealing with flooding. As we have been driving around, we have seen roads closed and houses inundated and again it’s a regulated system, so the government can play a role in managing that.
“The community were talking about how they have WaterNSW with one set of modelling – they control the lakes – and then you’ve got the Bureau of Meteorology with another set of modelling, and they are not talking to each other.
“The SES [State Emergency Service] is the lead agency, but they are disaster response not mitigation or planning. They are not managing the lakes.
“People in these communities have that sense of people zooming in from Sydney and not having local knowledge and not listening to them, and certainly not coming in and being on the ground as much as they should, and they are feeling like they are talking to a brick wall.
“I don’t think you could look at what has been happening at the Menindee Lakes, as an example, over the last few years and say yes this has been well managed. It’s clearly not been well managed.
“There needs to be a bit more effort put into genuine consultation and not tick box stuff where they have a little information session and talk at people and then leave. That’s not adequate and we have seen a lot of that over recent years,” Ms Jackson said.
