The meeting was held to help the locals understand the rules around water sharing as part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and particularly what this means for the Yanco Creek.
However, Mrs Mortlock said the meeting felt more like the government just telling everyone what they want to hear and that they could not give a clear answer regarding how it will affect the area if the creeks run dry.
‘‘They were very dismissive and just told us everything will be okay,’’ she said.
‘‘We asked ‘how are you guaranteeing it will be okay?’ They couldn’t give us a clear answer.
‘‘We also want to know, if there is water in the creek, who is going to own the water? And again there were no answers.’’
After promises back at meetings in December that DOI Water was determined to amend the ‘‘self-confessed PR disaster they are’’, Mrs Mortlock revealed the government still is not able to have any formal engagement with the public on the proposed project under the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism (SDLAM).
‘‘They promised to make an effort to get back into the community; to consult, inform and collaborate, but we can’t have anything in formal writing. The formal engagement was already delayed by seven months since first promised and we as a community are too keenly aware of the clock ticking towards the 2024 deadline (of the SDLAM project).
‘‘We have asked that every government-induced heel dragging event should not be a penalty to the stakeholders working with them. Any delay caused on their part should be added back on to the deadline beyond June 2024 so we don’t fall over the finish line, fail, and have the government say ‘oh well here we are! What a shame. We’ll do Plan B after all’.
‘‘We have expressed this most strongly to Helen Dalton MP in a meeting with her in Jerilderie last week and have communicated the same to (Member for Albury) Justin Clancy, (Federal Member for Farrer) Sussan Ley and others of influence.
‘‘The timelines must be flexible to accommodate the lack of unity — hence delays — caused by the agencies we are working with.’’
Mrs Mortlock was also frustrated that after the community was told by Water Minister Melinda Pavey and NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro that as a community ‘‘we must be united, on the same page, speaking to the same messages and with one voice’’ that mixed messages are being received from different governing bodies.
‘‘We ask, is that not a ‘say as I do not do as I say’ hoax? We sit confident in our seats that we are already abiding by these requests, so what’s next?
‘‘The known disdain between DOI Water and Water NSW does not show any unity or lend itself to a cooperative collaboration towards the goal we all seek.
‘‘While we as the communities of the creeks get on with agreeing on our collective message with our unified voice, our government with their equivocations and interdepartmental quarrelling drags their heels, which is to our detriment. Their mixed messages, their lack of parity and prevarication must be replaced with all that Melinda Pavey expects of us and is getting from us so we can all get on with it.’’
