Friday, 20 October 2023
Subjects: Wallendbeen bridge upgrade, Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council de-merge, water security, coastal harvestable rights, Small Business Month, Rural Women’s Day, Boorowa Touch Football & Netball Carnival.
E&OE…
Richard Spence: Just a reminder, more traffic around our area due to a crash which has closed the Newell Highway near West Wyalong. It's been closed since 6:30 last night when the crash happened. It's still closed now. Traffic diverted through Temora and Wallendbeen, Cowra and Grenfell. So there may be more traffic in the area, especially the Wallendbeen Bridge, just one lane. I welcome into the studio, member for Cootamundra, Steph Cooke. Good morning.
Steph Cooke: Good morning, Richard. It's good to be with you.
Richard Spence: So, this highlights the necessity to get that bridge done in Wallendbeen.
Steph Cooke: Absolutely. This has been a long-running issue, impacting the people of the Wallendbeen community more than anyone else, but of course right across our region. It's a critical aspect of the Burley Griffin Way. We know we've always got that heavy vehicle and other vehicle movement travelling from the east at the Hume, and heading all the way through our electorate and out to the west.
And you get a situation like this where the Newell Highway has been closed for several hours now – and I think that's going to continue for the foreseeable future – it can only increase traffic, as you've mentioned, through our region. And we have a situation there, where this bridge is still in its temporary form. It's got traffic lights on either end. There is a speed limit, understandably, as you move through that area. It's one lane. It's entirely unacceptable.
And my understanding is, and I keep being reassured that Transport for New South Wales are working with the federal body known as ARTC, because they are responsible for the main rail line, to secure the necessary, they call them possessions, which means that the rail line has to close in order for bridge work to be undertaken.
But this has been going on for months and months and months. Progress on it has been very slow, and at the moment it's at a complete standstill; has been since March, when the New South Wales Government firstly went into caretaker mode, a new government coming out the other side of that. We've had no movement on site since then. It's completely unacceptable.
Richard Spence: How long has it been since we had a two-lane bridge across there? It's been nearly two years now, or more.
Steph Cooke: Absolutely. Yes, since the original bridge failed due to very, very wet and poor conditions. So it was weather-driven at the time. And in government, we proceeded to firstly put a temporary bridge in place, and that took some time, but it's the main bridge that we need to see resolved now because that will restore full access to that whole area, to not just take the pressure off traffic movement through that area, but it's had a very detrimental impact on the Wallendbeen community itself.
Richard Spence: Of course.
Steph Cooke: This temporary bridge makes a lot of noise as traffic proceeds over it. The bolts that are holding down the plates over the surface routinely need to be tightened. So as they become loose over time, it makes a lot of rattling noise as you move through the area. There have been concerns raised with me by locals around, not just the noise, but the speed at which traffic actually does proceed through that area. And I've witnessed for myself, trucks that go through there a little bit too quick, to be honest.
Richard Spence: And trying to beat the light as well.
Steph Cooke: And trying to beat the lights. It just goes on and on. I mean, I'm working with the Minister for Regional Transport. She came out, of course, in July and met with locals, so she has heard firsthand the frustrations of that community. I genuinely believe that she's operating in good faith around this issue, but Transport for New South Wales are just simply not moving quickly enough. They are not attending to this matter with the urgency with which it requires.
Richard Spence: And it is a very key road for freight and traffic in general.
Steph Cooke: It is a critical road in regional New South Wales. And the longer that the bridge is in its temporary form as it currently is, the more the frustration grows in the community. You've also got a situation, of course, where we are only weeks out from harvest now. We're now going into another harvest with a temporary bridge in place. The risk increases, and people need to not only be safe on our roads, but they need to feel safe on our roads as well. And the issue that you've highlighted this morning with the closure on the Newell, it just brings it up all over again.
Richard Spence: It certainly does. And speaking of frustrations in communities, we've heard the regional news with Will Gleeson about the stagnating demerger process of the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council. What's the latest you have on that?
Steph Cooke: This is, again, another long-running issue impacting the communities of Cootamundra and Gundagai and their surrounding towns and villages. The latest there is that the Shadow Minister for Local Government, Wendy Tuckerman and myself will be having a meeting with the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Councillors next Wednesday.
That meeting has now been secured and locked in. I'm looking forward to having that meeting, because Wendy Tuckerman, as the minister at the time, was the one that actually announced the demerge. So she's extremely familiar, not just with our region, but with the intricacies and the detail of this particular situation and the need to press on with this demerge.
So we'll sit down with the councillors, hear from them in terms of where they see their future going and what support we can lend to them over the time ahead. And as with the Wallendbeen Bridge, these are matters that I will continue pushing forward on, on behalf of our communities; that's my job, and I take it very seriously, as most people would know. And we will just keep pushing up until we get these issues resolved in the best interests of our communities, because we deserve no less.
Richard Spence: And the further that delay goes on, it could have ramifications with the local government elections. They're what, less than 12 months away, or thereabouts?
Steph Cooke: Absolutely. They're 10 months away or so. And yes, it does have ramifications for the timings around those local government elections. It also, even in the interim, it has impacts on the ability for council to attract and retain staff.
Richard Spence: Yes.
Steph Cooke: Employment security is a big deal in rural and regional New South Wales and we need to be able to attract and retain the best people, whatever your organisation is, and this cloud of uncertainty that continues to hang over those communities does not help the council with respect to their future planning and the health and welfare and wellbeing of their staff.
But I really want to say a huge thank you as I've done time and time again, but never miss an opportunity to thank the staff of that council; they continue to deliver for the community against a very, very difficult backdrop.
Richard Spence: Yes.
Steph Cooke: And thank the councillors as well led by Mayor Charlie Sheahan for their commitment and their representation on behalf of local communities.
Richard Spence: All right, and we're heading into a hot dry summer. El Niño is upon us. Drought and bushfire risk and water security. That's very important in our region, and there's some sort of deficiencies, I guess you could say from the government at the moment?
Steph Cooke: Well, I think the two issues that really concern me for our electorate as we head into a drier period, El Niño has been officially declared by the Bureau of Meteorology, as I think just about everybody knows. We've got 40 per cent of the state now that is either drought declared or drought impacted in some way. Thankfully, we aren’t captured in those numbers here just yet, but there's no doubt in the west of the electorate, things are really starting to dry out in that sort of Narrandera, West Wyalong, west of their part of the world.
But as I look east, the two concerns I have, number one is town water security for Boorowa. Again, this is an issue that needs to be resolved. I presented a petition to the Minister for Water on behalf of the Boorowa community led by Angus Mitchell, and I was more than happy to present that on behalf of the community to the minister. We've been given assurances that the state government will work with Hilltops around the next steps in relation to water security for that community, but it's something that we're going to need to see more than talk. We're going to need to see money on the table to put in place the infrastructure that's needed to guarantee water security for that town. It deserves it in this day and age.
The second issue, of course, is the scrapping of the raising of the wall of Wyangala Dam. If we enter a sustained dry period, we will see those dam levels decrease at an increasingly rapid rate because the towns and farmers along the river system will need to access water over summer; there's no question of that. We know that in February of 2020 that Wyangala Dam dropped down to around about 8 per cent, and if we head into a dry period, that's what will happen.
What we need to be focused on in my mind, and what I'll continue to fight for, is that wall to be raised so that when we do have significant inflows, downpour of water, that we capture that water and we hang on to it so that when it does get drier, we've got more water that we can draw down on during that time, and of course it does have also downstream flood mitigation benefits for the towns of Cowra and Forbes and others when we have really wet periods like we experienced last year.
Richard Spence: And speaking of water catchment and the farmers needing the water, there is that reduction of the catchment percentage on the coast at least. Is that going to spread right across the state and how will that impact farmers if they cannot capture as much water as they could in the past?
Steph Cooke: The issue that you're touching on – the technical term – is called coastal harvestable rights.
Richard Spence: Yes.
Steph Cooke: Thankfully, inland – basically west of the Divide – it won't have an immediate impact on our communities. However, what we are seeing on the coastal areas is a reduction in the amount of water that farmers can capture. In government, the Coalition set that amount at 30 per cent. That has now been reduced by this Labor Government to just 10 per cent, and it reduces the ability of farmers to water stock; to provide fodder and food for their animals. These are the decisions…
Richard Spence: And not only that, it's the emergency services in times of bushfire that need access to that water as well on those properties.
Steph Cooke: Absolutely. There is a longstanding and very strong relationship between the Rural Fire Service and landowners all over New South Wales, and I had the privilege of seeing that in action as Minister for Emergency Services in the Perrottet Government. One of the aspects of that relationship is the ability of the RFS to access water from farm dams in the event of a fire to be able to fight that fire with that water.
One of the benefits of having coastal harvestable rights set at 30 per cent was of course, the capture of more water so that when you are faced in dry times with looming bushfires, the RFS can access that water, so that has now been obviously substantially impacted by this decision.
Richard Spence: It's just astonishing, the decisions being made by the Labor Government at the moment. They're so city-centric, they just seem to have no idea that things exist outside the cities.
Steph Cooke: It does appear that way at times; there's no question of that, particularly when it comes to issues of water and water security, and flood mitigation. The natural disasters that occur in New South Wales predominantly impact people in the regions. Whether it be bushfires, droughts, flooding, we are mostly at the forefront and bear the brunt of what happens during those times.
So it’s imperative that the government of the day really understands what that impact is, and most importantly, what we can do to mitigate the risks into the future. How can we better prepare our communities.
And one thing that I've said over and over and will continue to do so is that in this country, we spend 97 cents of every dollar on recovery efforts, whether that's drought, whether it's flood recovery, bush fire recovery, and we spend only 3 cents in every dollar on prevention and mitigation. And projects like the Wyangala Dam will fit into that mitigation category, and it's now been scrapped.
We need to flip that; we need to flip that dial, so that it's 97 cents spent in preparedness and mitigation, and that will only then require 3 cents in every dollar on recovery. That is the goal.
Richard Spence: Do you think a lot of this decision-making is pandering to activists, causes, and concerns rather than just common sense?
Steph Cooke: I think sometimes there's a risk that we in rural areas are presented as people who don't care about the environment, and it just couldn't be further from the truth. Our farmers are some of the most prominent and leading conservationists in the world. They take care of their landscape for all manner of reasons, not just in relation to their own productivity and efficiency, but because they genuinely care about the land that they are operating on.
And as we know across the Cootamundra electorate, there are farms that have been in the same family for four or more generations. And that's extraordinary and it's something that we should be proud of, and we should continue to celebrate. And we shouldn't be painted as people who are anti-environment, because we aren't.
Richard Spence: Yes.
Steph Cooke: It's just about finding that right balance between environmental outcomes and ensuring that our communities can thrive, and people in our communities can reach their full potential and enjoy everything that there is to be enjoyed about living where we do.
Richard Spence: Yeah, and on that positive uptick, looking at other things, Small Business month, International Rural Women's Day was recently as well.
Steph Cooke: Yes, of course, Rich. There are so many great things going on in our electorate. I think we need to end on a really, really positive note; it's not just all bad news.
We've recently had Rural Women's Day celebrated down at Coolac, 120 women coming together in one place, having lunch.
I was honoured to be one of the three guest speakers of the day. It was a beautiful occasion and wonderful to see so many inspiring women from right across the electorate come together and enjoy friendship and fellowship and a beautiful lunch.
And we really need to do more of that; our women contribute so much to all of our communities, and I think anything that we can do to get them together in a similar way in the future is something we should absolutely encourage and support.
Richard Spence: Of course. And that probably extends across to Small Business Month as well, women and men operating businesses across the region.
Steph Cooke: Yes, so many people at this lunch were small business operators, women just driving their own businesses, and don't they do a fantastic job.
And it is Small Business Month. And so I think this is a wonderful and timely reminder, as we head into the Christmas period, which is just around the corner – I don't know where the year has gone, but nonetheless – to encourage people to shop locally.
We know that our small businesses are the backbone of our towns, and anything that we can do to shop local and to support them at every point is a good thing to do.
Richard Spence: It certainly is. And a really big event happening today in Boorowa, attracting student competitors from all over the state, pretty much.
Steph Cooke: I can't wait to get back out to Boorowa. As most people know, Boorowa joined the Cootamundra electorate at the election in March. I've been back several times and it's one of my new favourite communities, I guess, in so many ways.
And today there's the Boorowa Touch and Netball Carnival. It's been running annually for 25 years. I haven't been before, because it's not been part of the electorate, but I'm looking forward to getting out there today.
And I think they're expecting around four and a half thousand competitors, which is just incredible, so I’m really looking forward to seeing people come together and watch our children enjoy sport.
Richard Spence: Of course. And just be mindful of the traffic around the town as well today, especially around that showground area. Steph Cooke, that's all for this morning, I guess. So we've timed it quite nicely. And thank you very much for coming in.
Steph Cooke: Thanks for having me again, Rich. I absolutely love our segment. And of course, to anyone who's listening, if there's any feedback that you have or you need to raise any issues with me, the office is here in Young. And if there's any topics that people would like us to talk about next time around, please either feed them to the radio station directly or feed them into my office, and Rich and I will make sure that we cover those off next time.
Richard Spence: Of course. All right, sounds terrific. Thanks a lot then, Steph. And we'll catch up with you. We'll make an appointment for next month sometime, and we'll have a chat leading into Christmas, which isn't that far away.
Comments