RADIO INTERVIEW
2GB AFTERNOONS WITH JOHN STANLEY
MONDAY, 8 APRIL 2024

SUBJECTS: Hawkesbury floods, flood recovery, and future flood mitigation.

JOHN STANLEY, HOST: Susan Templeman, someone I've known for decades when we were both reporters in CRA. She's been now for some years, the federal member for Macquarie. We've had conversations with Susan about natural disasters, fires and now floods. And the last time we had this conversation there were federal governments, a Coalition federal government and there was a coalition state government. Now Labor is in power at both levels and there are suggestions that not much is happening. Not much is not much is going on in relation to all of this. Let's talk to her about all of this Susan good evening. Uh, good morning. Good afternoon to you.

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MACQUARIE, SUSAN TEMPLEMAN: I think afternoon.

HOST: It's very hard when you change your hours. But anyway, that's one to go on to the tape. Um look Susan there is a serious issue here. Let's just first of all talk about what's happening on the ground because you're keeping a cross what's happening in your electorate and the adjoining electorates. 

TEMPLEMAN: Absolutely, and the cleanup is underway with people starting to see what the debris is left. What the damage is. I was talking to one of the turf farmers who has heaps of sand on their property down on Cornwallis. So we're really starting to get a picture of what's being left. And as the water continues to recede you get a a bigger picture of what will take, not even days or weeks to clean up, but months to set right.

HOST: Okay, so and look this is all at a micro level people have got their individual challenges which can be huge and there are assistance programs from both federal and state governments. I think the waste collection levy that's been scrapped. All those moves are being made at the moment to assist people in the short term.

TEMPLEMAN: Yeah, that's the latest announcement by the New South Wales government that the New South Wales waste levy won't apply when people take their rubbish, whether that's garden debris, damaged building materials and anything else that's flood affected. So, they can take that to the tip and it will be up to council to determine what extra charges are there. But the New South Wales levy which is a big whack of the cost, has been lifted. And what I'm really welcoming is that this has happened much faster by this government than we've seen previously by previous governments. And you mentioned a difference in you know, change of government the whole way along here I have seen a responsiveness and a recognition of the urgency of the situation by the New South Wales government. Does that mean everything's been perfect? Of course not. But they have responded and are listening and I'm very confident as the Minister for Emergency Services, Jihad Dib said yesterday, that they will learn from the things that aren't working and keep improving them. So that's been one difference we've seen already.

HOST: Okay, what about I've got the mayor of Hawkesbury saying, it's no safer than it was two years ago the area. That promises to raise the dam have been scrapped. You heard what Stuart Khan was saying there about lowering the level that does make some sense, doesn't it?

TEMPLEMAN: I have been an advocate, thanks to the education I've had from Stuart Kahn, I've been an advocate of looking at the logistics of how could you use the existing infrastructure we've got to better protect the Hawkesbury. Now it's a floodplain so we know that there's not a single quick fix, but what role could we have by being able to, as Stuart Khan says, get some air space in that dam when the conditions indicate it's needed. It obviously requires for Sydney's water supply to be well and truly secured by other sources and I know I have spoken to both Chris Minns and Rose Jackson about the desalination plant and how could that work better - 

HOST: What about recycling? People always shied away from recycling shouldn't we be doing more of that?

TEMPLEMAN: Oh absolutely. Absolutely. And for some reason the so-called ick-factor has stopped people from that but people in the Hawkesbury already drink recycled water. Their water is taken out of the river, it has work done to it and then it goes into the drinking supply. So, parts of Sydney are doing it but we do need to work hard, I think, to get the rest of Sydney to realise that most of the world is drinking recycled water and it's a really sensible way forward.

HOST: Okay, if you were going to then have the dam level lower particularly, you know, what a fair way out from potential problems. So, you'd have to keep it I guess for most of the time I have to be lower. How much lower? What proportion of Warragamba would you lose if you needed to have more of that airspace to be able to accommodate events like the ones we saw on the weekend?

TEMPLEMAN: Well, I think that's exactly the work that has to be done. And for all I know that work may be underway. It may well be people looking seriously at what levels the consequences would be, what sort of capacity would it have. I really am not going to, as a lay person, pretend to be some sort of water engineering expert. But that's what the role for government. And that is the role for the state government to look at what the options are and what gives me confidence that this is not just being pushed down the road as an issue. Is that the New South Wales government has identified the Hawkesbury as the region where they're doing the first disaster at an adaptability plan. Now, it sounds you know, like a lot of people sitting around talking, but what it actually means is for once at last to have a plan and a vision for the different things that can be done now and in the future so that at a federal level when we say to a state government, how can we help you be more resilient? They actually have some tangible things that can be put forward and we can support them.

HOST: But things take so long to get done and I know at the moment, you know, you've got Labor governments both state and federal, people are going to be saying that you're talking in a partisan way. Can we be confident there is some work being done to me lowering that dam level, would be something that could be done relatively quickly if you could establish some parameters, I mean that work surely isn't going to take that long, is it?

TEMPLEMAN: I can't answer that John. All I know is that I'm seeing movement in the state government in the form of planning for disasters. I think, you know, it is not, it's not partisan. It's just a fact that the previous government's plan was raising the dam wall. And that was it. That was the plan - 

HOST: That would have created the air, wouldn't it? That would have done the job that we're talking about?

TEMPLEMAN: Well look, the Premier has made it really clear. There are a whole lot of reasons why that's not something the current government is considering. My view, I'm a really pragmatic person, use the infrastructure we've got. That is a quicker way to start at the very least exploring and testing things to see what benefit they have. We also desperately need drains on the Hawkesbury to be repaired and that involves work at a council and state government level and we need evacuation route, like at Pitt Town, people of pit town did need to evacuate in large numbers this time, but they got a ready to go evacuation route that needs upgrading they're the sorts of- 

HOST: I've got a quote here from the Hawkesbury mayor who said "Promises to raise the dam have been scraped" - we know that "recommendations to the 2022 Upper House Inquiry into Flooding, to immediately fund the Pitt Town flood evacuation route have come to nothing." 

TEMPLEMAN: So there are constant rounds of federal funding and certainly I'm urging state and council to put forward these sorts of projects - 

HOST: But what does take so long? That was a 2022 inquiry and we're 2 years on.

TEMPLEMAN: Anything to do with flood planning in the Hawkesbury has taken decades to get us to this point. It feels to me like we are the closest that I've ever known it to actually getting some tangible things on the ground and I will certainly be pushing for that. We can't waste another few years of sun before - we don't know when the next flood will come but we just in the last couple of years experienced the very worst of it,  without it even being what's considered a major flood. 

HOST: Just on the Pitt Town evacuation route like it's 2 years on what can you say about that one?  Let's just pick that for instance as an example of something. You've said how important it is. Where do you think that's going, when's that going to happen? 

TEMPLEMAN: Well, I was in Pitt Town last night,  with some of the key locals in the Progress Association. They have been pleading with governments for years and years and years to do it. My job is to support them. Ultimately, they are decisions for the state government. We stand ready at the federal level to support the states with good disaster mitigation. We converted a fund to make it $200 million a year for the country to actually invest in preparation and mitigation, not just in this disaster cleanup. So, as a local member my job is to amplify their calls and it's great to be able to have you talking about what can we do? We need to keep not just talking about it, but to get it to a point where decisions are made.

HOST: The NSW government that you've talked about Jihad Dib who I think is a good man, surely, he could, I mean if you're listening to this, they'd be getting a a transcript of it, say ok can we get this happening now? Get it happening now if it's that important to Pitt Town.

TEMPLEMAN: I would have loved to have seen this years ago as would the people of Pitt Town for instance and certainly the people in the Hawkesbury I think want to see practical things happen. I'm also very mindful, it's not for politicians to just say, this is the fix. It does have to be backed up by good engineering, good data and you know, you don't want to spend a lot of money doing things that are actually not going to work. We then get slammed for doing that. So let's trust the experts but let's empower them and act on their advice.

HOST: Okay, what about Richmond Bridge? I got a note here from Anthony, Richmond Bridge. Pretty Old Bridge. What about that one?

TEMPLEMAN: Oh, yeah. I'm really proud of that. I've been part of this fight for 15 years , it's been for me, to get a duplication of the Richmond Bridge, the North Richmond Bridge to get a higher crossing there. So funding was secured by the previous government of around $400 million, we've maintained that funding support when we were looking at infrastructure commitments that have been made. I fought very - 

HOST: So, when is that happening? 

TEMPLEMAN: The work is underway - 

HOST: Ok all right. 

TEMPLEMAN: You know, here's the challenge for me at the federal level. We've stumped up the money, it does go to state departments to then do all that horrible engineering stuff. But I am applying, I think you'd call it constant pressure, to ensure that this project is delivered as fast as possible because that will really change things when we see floods. Remembering it's a floodplain and we know it will flood.

HOST: All right. I appreciate your time. I thank you so much for that.

TEMPLEMAN: Thanks. Thanks a lot John.

ENDS