Anger at bid to gag Warragamba Dam wall-raise criticism

A senior WaterNSW employee mulled how local Aboriginal opponents to the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall could be gagged, leaked emails reveal.

Western Sydney Minister Stuart Ayres has recently released the environmental impact statement for the proposed raising of the Warragamba Dam. Picture: Dominic Lorrimer

A senior WaterNSW employee mulled over how local Aboriginal opponents to the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall could be gagged, leaked emails reveal.

The controversial project has earned the ire of traditional owners, who fear dozens of culturally significant heritage sites will be inundated if the dam raising goes ahead. The plan to raise the wall by up to 17 metres is to provide flood mitigation for at-risk communities in Western Sydney.

In an email obtained by The Australian, a strategic communications manager at WaterNSW pondered whether there was any scope to extend confidentiality agreements to preclude Registered Aboriginal Parties from speaking ahead of a meeting about the project’s cultural heritage assessment.

“After much digging, it seems we only have confidentiality terms with those we have employed,” the WaterNSW employee wrote on July 19, 2019.

“My last-ditch thought for confidentiality is I wonder if there are any terms of reference developed by RAPs when they whether (sic) established? Either developed for this group specifically or derived from the legislation.

“Otherwise it’s actually the RAPs confidentiality that we are tasked with maintaining, not the other way around.”

As previously revealed by The Australian, two of the country’s leading archaeologists have expressed concern that the project’s cultural heritage assessment has failed to adequately consult with the local Aboriginal community, while privileging archaeological value over Aboriginal value.

At the time, Scarp Archaeology director Michael Slack and University of Queensland ­researcher Annie Ross warned the biggest flaw in the heritage reports commissioned by the government was the “absence of a modern Indigenous voice”.

The revelations came just weeks after Western Sydney Minister, and now Deputy Liberal leader, Stuart Ayres released the 8500-page environmental impact statement for the project. Despite the length of the document, the public only has until November 12 to submit feedback.

Mr Ayres said the EIS would provide the community “a full understanding of what is proposed” and the potential environmental impacts. Late last month, NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes refused to declare the project critical, which would have provided immunity against regulatory or legal challenge.

Colong Foundation for Wilderness general manager Harry Burkitt said secrecy had always been the “number one” priority for WaterNSW in its efforts to raise the wall. “Spending taxpayers dollars on employing public servants to canvass how best to silence Indigenous opposition to this destructive project is nothing short of outrageous,” he said.

A spokesman for WaterNSW said: “The statement referenced was part of a broader exchange seeking to ensure WaterNSW maintained the integrity of the process for collecting culturally sensitive information during the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment. As agreed in conjunction with the Registered Aboriginal Parties involved in the ACHA process, this information was to be treated confidentially and respectfully, and only released with the express permission of the RAPs.

“The ACHA and the … wall-raising environmental impact statement processes are strictly governed by multiple legislative and procedural parameters, and subject to state and commonwealth government review, to ensure assessment and consultation work was fully compliant.”