Matt Kean backs raising the dam wall after claiming it was ‘unviable’
Treasurer Matt Kean has sensationally backflipped on his stance on the raising of the Warragamba Dam, backing in the Premier’s plan after questioning its financial viability in the past.
NSW
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Treasurer Matt Kean has sensationally backflipped on his stance on the raising of the Warragamba Dam, backing in the Premier’s plan after questioning its financial viability in the past.
Mr Kean, a moderate Liberal who has been vocal on environmental concerns, said if the choice was between saving home and national parks, he would choose homes.
Environment groups have consistently opposed the project on the grounds that the environment behind the wall will be damaged if the wall is raised.
“If it’s a choice between water lapping up in people’s living rooms, or water lapping up in the national park, then I’m saying that it should be lapping up in the national park,” Mr Kean said.
“I have been a fierce advocate for our environment, I’ll continue to be a fierce advocate for our environment, but I can do that whilst also standing up for the people of western Sydney.”
Labor - who oppose the wall raising - have pounced on Mr Kean’s comments, pointing to statements he made in 2019 questioning the wall-raising proposal.
“As the Environment Minister, I intend on being a very loud and robust voice, standing up for our environment and that includes standing up for the Blue Mountains National Park when it comes to the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall,” Mr Kean said.
“I think the economics of raising the dam wall will make that project unviable.”
Labor heritage spokeswoman Penny Sharpe said Mr Kean has “abandoned his pledge” to be a voice for the environment.
“That robust voice turned to a whisper. Matt Kean has abandoned his promise to stand up for national parks and world heritage protection,” she said.
His backflip comes a day after Premier Dominic Perrottet fast-tracked the wall raising by classifying it as state significant infrastructure.
On Thursday he said he was “convinced” the project was the right way to “protect people, to protect property, and to ensure that we save lives”.
“We’ve got to look at more than the business case and the cost benefit analysis. We’ve got to look at the impact that this project will have on the lives of people living in western Sydney,” he said.
Mr Kean’s comments come a day after Premier Dominic Perrottet on Wednesday announced the raising of the wall would be declared critical state infrastructure.
The designation – which means the project would bypass a swathe of planning red tape and would only require a sign-off by the planning minister – represents a giant leap forward for the proposal, with the premier saying it would provide relief to western Sydney residents hit by at least three major floods in the last 18 months.
“First and foremost my number one priority as premier is protecting NSW communities and we know from the independent flood inquiry that the best way to protect communities downstream is to raise the wall,” Mr Perrottet said.
“This declaration reinforces that raising the dam wall is the most effective long-term flood mitigation strategy to help protect residents across the Hawkesbury-Nepean.”
Minister for Lands and Water Kevin Anderson said the recently released Greater Sydney Water Strategy directed that raising the wall would prevent the number of homes which would be impacted in a record-equalling flood would drop from 15,500 to 5000.
Only 14,000 people would need to be evacuated rather than 90,000, he added.
“The cost of damages would also be reduced by up to $8 billion,” Mr Anderson said.
Being deemed critical state infrastructure means the project would require approval only from NSW Planning Minister Anthony Roberts. Mr Roberts said the declaration would not impact scrutiny of the plan.
“The proposal has already been subject to an 82-day public exhibition, which gave stakeholders a chance to provide their feedback,” he said.
“This proposal doesn’t hurt us during drought, but will protect us during floods, balancing the natural extremes that are becoming more frequent.”
It signals a rapid change in pace on the government’s long-running proposals to build more dams in the state, coming the month after a new dam and pipeline were also declared critical state infrastructure at Dungowan, in the state’s northwest.
LEAKED MEMOS REVEAL ‘PERMANENT DROUGHT’ FEARS
Dropping the water levels in Warragamba Dam in a bid to stop devastating floods striking Western Sydney could plunge the city into “permanent drought”, while ditching enough water could take more than a year and create flood escape routes, according to internal government memos seen by The Daily Telegraph.
Further information in WaterNSW briefings to the government also state that dropping levels to just five metres below the full supply levels could take up to a year because it is currently not legal to use the dam for flood mitigation.
And once the process starts, it would take up to three months and could flood-in communities below the dam by closing bridges, as the NSW Government gathers steam in its push to raise the dam wall by 14 metres.
Labor leader Chris Minns for the first time yesterday ruled out supporting raising the dam wall – telling 2GB radio “I don’t think it’s a good cost effective way (to prevent floods) for a number of reasons”.
It’s understood the NSW Government will soon release modelling showing raising the wall could help save over 8000 lives from future flood risk, based off of future development slated downstream.
“Raising the wall is the single biggest piece of work we can undertake to save Western Sydney lives and property from the risk of floods,” Premier Dominic Perrottet said.
The government has claimed new modelling shows to achieve the same flood mitigation benefits as raising the dam by 14 metres, dam storage levels would have to be dropped by 67 per cent of the total storage capacity.
It could reduce the permanent water level of the dam to 33 per cent – the same as putting Sydney into at least level two water restrictions – or a “permanent drought”, according to NSW Water Minister Kevin Anderson.
“Labor’s plan for flood mitigation risks putting Sydney into severe water restrictions and even permanent drought,” Mr Anderson said.
“The only solution to avoid potentially putting Sydney into drought conditions is raising the wall by 14 metres.”
On Tuesday, Mr Minns said his party was “looking at all potential suggestions when it comes to flood mitigation”.
“This government has had 12 years to raise the wall and they haven’t poured one bit of concrete,” he told The Telegraph.
“Instead they put out modelling that they refuse to release and which can’t be independently verified.
WATER BILLS TO SKYROCKET UNDER DAM PLAN
Household water bills will shoot up by $130 per year if Warragamba Dam’s maximum capacity is lowered – a plan Labor leader Chris Minns will “closely” look at as his answer to devastating floods in Western Sydney.
A secret government briefing, seen by The Daily Telegraph, revealed that lowering the full supply level of the dam by 12m will add $130 to annual family budgets because of modifications and a new desalination plant that will be needed to offset the drop in water levels.
The project is anticipated to cost more and take longer to execute than raising the dam wall.
In July this year, Labor leader Chris Minns told 2GB he would look “closely” at the option to lower the maximum water capacity of Warragamba Dam and was sceptical of raising the wall.
“If we can make up the lost capacity in drinking water supply in the Sydney basin we can do it in a more cost effective way.”
To lower the water capacity, the dam would be slowly released through controlled leaks — leaks that can only happen once a billion dollars are spent on modifications to the current flood gate.
As more rain pounds Sydney and NSW – the internal document by Water NSW estimated raising the wall will cost $1.6bn.
The document found that a raised wall would be cheaper than the $3.5bn-$4bn desalination plant that would be needed if the supply level is lowered.
It will also take six years to prop up the 250 megalitre plant instead of the four years required to raise the wall by 14m.
“Following investigation of all feasible options, the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Management Taskforce found that raising the dam wall was the best flood mitigation option as it would lower potentially devastating flood levels downstream, give people more certainty of time to evacuate and decrease flood damage to urban and rural properties by more than 70 per cent on average,” the document read.
“Alternative options to permanently lower the full water supply level … would require significant investment to offset the increased risk to Sydney’s water security and drought resilience as a result of the reduced volume of water stored at Warragamba Dam.”
Most compellingly, the memo found that a raised wall would mean 73,600 people will no longer have to flee the Hawkesbury-Nepean valley in the event of a flood if the wall is raised compared to 55,900 if the supply level is lowered.
The new revelations shoot down claims by Mr Minns that the wall raising project will cost too much and that lowering the capacity is a “cheaper” alternative.
Water Minister Kevin Anderson slammed the opposition’s view as a policy that will add “hip pocket pain”.
“Under a Labor Government, taxpayers will be slugged hundreds of dollars in water bills,“ he said.
“Raising the wall is the best flood mitigation option, because it would lower potentially devastating flood levels downstream, and significantly reduce the number of people needing to evacuate.”
Labor water spokesman Rose Jackson said the government had been in power for 12 years but the wall had still not been raised.
“This 12 year old government has proposed raising the wall for over a decade, with constantly changing projected costs and no money allocated in the Budget to deliver the project,” she said.
“As the Hawkesbury-Nepean communities suffer from repeated flooding events the NSW Government engages in these silly political games.”
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