Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Wyangala Dam wall needs to be raised! What is required at the end of that sentence is not just a full stop but an exclamation mark. Increasing the dam wall by the proposed 10 metres would provide additional capacity of 650 gigalitres. Sydney Harbour holds about 500 gigalitres. Imagine the new agricultural opportunities that would be possible with all of that water.

Friday was National Agriculture Day, a day to celebrate our nation's most important workforce—farmers. After all, they feed us and they clothe us. On that very day, water from the flooded Lachlan River was flowing through and past Forbes. Since 1887, that town has experienced major flood events, on average, every seven years. This one has peaked so far at 10.55 metres, with 660 state emergency service requests for assistance, including five rescues. Roads have been damaged, crops ruined, fences washed over and stock drowned.

The damage bill and indeed loss of potential by not having the ability to use this water productively will run into the order of hundreds of millions of dollars, yet the Greens at the New South Wales upper house level and academic professor Jamie Pittock have denounced the dam wall raising initiative. I say this to them: you are wrong and Forbes knows it. Once the mud settles, the New South Wales government needs to do proper costing and get back to the Commonwealth, and we'll get on with it.

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