John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity in this debate on the address-in-reply to the Governor-General’s speech firstly to talk about the recent election. For the second election running, my electorate of Calare was vastly changed. In two elections we have almost changed 100 per cent, having changed almost 50 per cent this time. I have had the pleasure within my electorate of gaining places like Lithgow, Oberon and the part of Bathurst I did not previously have. When you add that to Blayney, Orange, Charbon, Parkes and Forbes, you probably have certainly the oldest, if not the best, agricultural country in Australia. This is where agriculture and mining first started in Australia outside of the Sydney basin. It is fairly safe to say that this is where mining and agriculture first got really serious. Without doubt it is also some of the best grazing and cropping country in Australia. And this area has the oldest towns. I think Bathurst was the first official town settled west of the Great Dividing Range; Wellington, which is just outside the electorate, was the second, and Carcoar, which is in the electorate of Calare and within the local government area of Blayney, was the third.

I must express my thanks to the electors of Calare for returning me as the member so I can once again have the honour to represent in this place our 98,000 voters or our 135,000 citizens—men, women and children. Every time you come back after an election you think you get older and more cynical, but I have never yet not taken a deep breath when I have taken an oath on the bible to look after the electorate. That never changes, and it reminds you that you have a responsibility beyond anything you have ever done in your life before.

The electorate of Calare faces some big issues. It is the gateway to western New South Wales, but that gateway has a gate across it called the Blue Mountains. It also has an enormous need for a freeway. Whether you live in Lithgow on the eastern edge of Calare or in Broken Hill, which used to be in my old electorate when I was the member for Parkes, on the western edge heading towards the South Australian border, everybody knows the same thing: until a good, multi-lane freeway is put across the mountains, not only is Sydney constrained from being able to expand beyond itself and relieve the pressure it is under, but so is western New South Wales, whether it is the tablelands, the central west or the far west. Its expansion, its development, is constrained by the fact that every big company knows a lot of things can happen west of the mountains, but mentally they see it as a physical barrier. The fact is it is a very ordinary road, whether it is the Bells Line of Road or the Great Western Highway through Katoomba or through Bell. One is incredibly dangerous and the other is incredibly slow. It is probably the biggest need not only for an electorate but for the whole of the western New South Wales—that is, the need for the New South Wales and federal governments to combine to make that happen. It must happen.

Without doubt the other big issue for the electorate of Calare is water. Not water for irrigation so much. By and large that is dealt with by farm dams for horticulture and in the Forbes shire irrigation happens out of the Lachlan River. It is an issue, even with what has happened lately. Whereas most dams are three-quarters or full, Wyangala Dam is not. It is still only just over 40 per cent. The Lachlan is a river that provides a lot for a lot of people. Even though it is not a river that contributes to the Murray-Darling Basin as such—it dissipates down below Booligal—it provides a lot of production and employment as well as a lifestyle for the people who live on it.

The water issues I really refer to are urban: they are development, they are mining and they are the general thrust of life. Bathurst has a very good dam due to the foresight of its local government and previous state governments. But for the western half of the electorate, a new dam is sorely needed. Yes, they can do short-term measures and pull out of the Macquarie River or the Lachlan River, but a new dam is needed because there are 20-odd possible mining developments to happen in the region. I am not talking about coal; I am talking about minerals which certainly need water for their development and their processing as it happens. Cadia mine and Northparkes mine are going to need water assurance in the future, as will the city of Orange, as will the local government areas of Cabonne and Blayney. These developments seriously need water, and once again that requires both state and federal governments to come to the party to put in a new dam. Obviously local governments can contribute towards it, and I certainly believe the mining industry will, without any hesitation, contribute to it, but we are talking serious money. We are probably talking upward of $200 million, but it has to be found to ensure the future development. It will ensure that when we do get a freeway through the mountains we are able to cater for the enormous expansion that will go to what I believe is probably the idyllic part of New South Wales, which also has wonderful wineries. The members from places like the Gold Coast would not realise the quality of wine that is grown in the tablelands of New South Wales. I should invite the member for Moncrieff into the heartland of Australia—the oldest part of agricultural and mining Australia. The last time I went to his electorate was to watch St George beat the Gold Coast. However we will not go into that.

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