How voters in regional NSW hold the key to state election outcome

The fate of the state is in the hands of country voters, who could cripple the Coalition unless the Nationals are able to spend their way out of trouble. Here we reveal the key issues affecting voters in the bush. FOLLOW OUR THE GREAT RIVER RUN SERIES

• The Great River Run: Murray Darling crisis
• Paddle steamer helped early expansion

The fate of the state is in the hands of country voters, who could cripple the Coalition unless the Nationals are able to spend their way out of trouble.

Both major parties have promised to spend all $4.2 billion from the sale of NSW’s stake in the Snowy Hydro scheme in rural and regional NSW, which has underwritten billions of dollars’ worth of promised roads, schools, nurses and hospitals.

The “wasting” of water has ­exploded as a white-hot political issue, and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party is furiously fanning community anger, hoping voters will punish the National Party.

The entire state is in drought, with severity ranging from ­“intense drought” (34.4 per cent) to “drought” (50.3 per cent) to “drought affected” (15.3 per cent). Nowhere in NSW is yet classed as “recovering” or “non drought” and there is little hope of significant rain ahead.

The Nationals, if elected, are promising to increase drought expenditure by $350 million, from $1.1 billion to $1.45 billion, through more long-term, low-interest loans.

The Daily Telegraph’s photographer Toby Zerna, cartoonist Warren Brown and columnist Tim Blair spent a week on the road hearing the stories of those living along the Murray Darling River. Picture: Toby Zerna

The Daily Telegraph’s columnist Tim Blair, cartoonist Warren Brown, photojournalist Toby Zerna late last month headed northwest to begin a week-long trek along the Darling, and through the towns and communities that depend on the river for their livelihoods.

“Right now, almost everybody living inland is in trouble. This includes those demonised cotton growers, whose properties are as blighted as the thousands of square kilometres surrounding them,” Blair wrote.

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The SFF would classify drought a natural disaster like flood and fire, which used to trigger emergency cash and subsidies, but was scrapped in 2013 in favour of loans supposed to future-proof farmers from times of crisis. New dams are the biggest ­investment in the Nationals’ cash splash, including $560 million to raise the Wyangala Dam wall across the Lachlan River in the southwestern slopes and $650 million to raise the Warragamba Dam wall in Sydney’s southwest.

Rather than building more water infrastructure, the SSF want to use their potential balance of power in the next parliament to dismantle water regulations and spend $5 billion in anticipated savings to salvage the worst drought-affected towns. The SFF would also scrap the Murray Darling Basin Plan for at least five years, a radical ploy that would require NSW to cut a deal with Queensland to keep water flowing.

Farmer Sam Evans on his property "Netherby" near Walgett. The far north western NSW town is running out of water. Picture: Nathan Edwards

Irrigated agriculture has ­already slowed to a trickle in NSW, despite attempts to blame cotton and rice growers for the death of up to a million fish along a 40km stretch of the Darling River over summer.

The current cotton crop in northern NSW is only 1 per cent of a typical year, while fruitgrowers in the south are irrigating only to keep trees alive.

The Nationals have pledged $25 million to revive the Bradfield Scheme (piping excess water from Queensland into the Murray-Darling system).

Labor has promised a Special Commission of Inquiry into the Darling River fish kills, continued drought relief, and working with Canberra to better prepare for the next drought.

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INSIDE THE COTTON FARM ACCUSED OF BLEEDING THE DARLING DRY

BANKING ON A BETTER FUTURE FOR OUR DARLING

Since 2011 the Coalition has spent $31.9 billion on improving regional roads and by 2023 every major highway in NSW is expected to be completely sealed, but the Nationals have promised another $1 billion to fix local roads and bridges. The bush lays claim to 70 per cent of the state’s $2.2 billion local roads repair bill, which the NRMA has warned is a danger to country drivers that councils can’t afford to fix on their own.

As part of the Nationals’ rural and regional road spend, it has pledged to take over 15,000km of pothole-plagued local roads currently under council control.

Labor has gone close to matching the Nationals’ proposed spending on roads, promising to stump up $900 million to fix local roads rated poor and very poor. The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers supported increased funding for country roads and pledged to use its influence in parliament to build rest stops at regular intervals on major highways with well-maintained, well-lit toilets, sheltered ­tables and chairs, and parking for trucks.

With all 10 of the state’s ice hot spots in rural and regional NSW, Labor has promised to build four ice rehab clinics outside of Sydney, while the Nationals have promised a new Cabinet minister for ice ­addiction among young people to save the next generation.

Under the Nationals the bush is in line for 3700 nurses, doctors, midwives and health workers into towns and regional cities, as well as 64 dedicated palliative care nurses.

The vast and dry expanse of Cubbie Station in south west Queensland, the largest irrigation property in the southern hemisphere, famous for its cotton, located near Dirranbandi. Picture: Toby Zerna

Labor’s promise of nurse-to-­patient ratios paid for by a tax on luxury cars and boats extends to the bush, although Labor leader Michael Daley hasn’t said whether the increased stamp duty will ­extend to work utes and trucks worth more than $100,000.

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers campaigned heavily on declining standards of rural healthcare, repeating people in ­regional NSW lived longer than Sydneysiders in 1996 but now rural residents are dying five years earl­ier, on average.

The SFF pledged to fight for more doctors on better pay and a $500 million kitty for regional hospital equipment, to stop country communities hosting chook raffles just to afford lifesaving machinery such as X-Ray and CAT scanners.

The Nationals will throw $400 million at the perennial issue of poor or non-existent mobile reception in the bush, promising more mobile black spot towers and ­improve internet services.