Water, rail and social housing for regional communities is what the Christian Democrats’ Paul Green is interested in addressing if he is re-elected to the NSW Legislative Council in the 2019 state election.
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Mr Green visited the region recently at the invitation of Phil Langfield to discuss the recent announcement of the raising of the Wyangala Dam wall.
“Phil has taken me around the catchment and shown me the contention of raising the Wyangala Dam wall as opposed to the establishment of Cranky Rock,” he said.
“I’m here to see what is the best use of water for the future. With the Wyangala proposal its going to be the same creeks and catchments and with Cranky Rock it would be a different catchment.
“I was on a water inquiry with state Parliament, we had a look at Cranky Rock and it seemed a viable situation. One would think that with the options of flood mitigation in another catchment as well that it would be a wise way to go,” he said.
Mr Green said the use and storage of water in NSW was always a priority to him.
“There’s a stat saying by 2050 the world will need 70 per cent more food than what we can produce,” Mr Green said.
“So if we are going to be the food bowl of the world we are going to need water.
“I think water has to be in the top two issues if we are to look properly in our regional areas as we try to decentralize from Sydney.
“If you don’t have a good water supply, housing supply and employment, you won’t get anyone to come to regional areas,” he said.
Mr Green said his re-election would allow him to continue his strong support for regional NSW.
“When I went into parliament in 2011 NSW was in a $5 billion deficit, it’s now got a $3 billion surplus,” he said.
“That didn’t happen by chance, that happened with us being the gate keepers on crucial votes, it’s a very responsible thing compared to the option of just writing cheques our kids are going to have to pay for.
“We’ve also moved about 160 amendments to government bills over my term in government and had about 159 agreed to.
“You don’t see cross bench effectiveness like that anywhere in Australia, if not the world.
“So the question for the people of regional NSW is who will be your regional champ and who will take my place?
“You might lose someone who is very passionate about regional NSW and get someone that’s not passionate at all about the region.
“It’s an insurance policy for reckless government and while we can’t necessarily hold them to account in the way we’d like to, we can expose the process, implement inquires, make things transparent and put it in the public square,” he said.
