Ms TRISH DOYLE (Blue Mountains) (17:14): This is a bad policy introduced by a crooked government on behalf of vested interests and Liberal Party donors in the property development industry—nothing more, nothing less. This is the same criminal Government—

Mr Kevin Conolly (LIBERAL - Riverstone): Point of order: My point of order relates to Standing Order 73. If the member wants to make allegations of corruption there is a proper way to do that.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The member for Blue Mountains will continue.

Ms TRISH DOYLE: This is the same Government that was responsible for water theft along the Murray River. The impacts of the proposal to raise the dam wall are well established. In my electorate we will see hundreds of square kilometres of pristine World Heritage national park flooded. We will see sacred Aboriginal sites inundated and destroyed. We will see huge cost imposts placed on taxpayers. The budget for the proposal has blown out from $690 million to $2 billion—and rising. How will the Government pay for it? On the economics of the dam wall raising, the now Treasurer said in 2019:

… 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.

... the reality is there are other ways that you can mitigate the potential for floods along that river. I think that the economics of raising the dam wall will make that project unviable.

What a backflip! We will see huge costs and we will see rampant property development take hold of areas that were until now deemed too dangerous to build upon. But members do not need to take my word for it.

Ms Robyn Preston (LIBERAL - Hawkesbury): Absolute rubbish!

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hawkesbury will resume her seat. Members without the call should not approach the lectern unless they are taking a point of order.

Ms TRISH DOYLE: Do not take the word of the Blue Mountains member who self-identifies as an environmentalist. Let us go to the testimony of that western Sydney traitor the Minister for toll roads, and member for Penrith, Stuart Ayres. In 2015 onNine News he was pictured standing in an empty field in front of a flood level marker that maxed out at four metres high. He cast his arm out wide and said, "As far as the eye can see, to that tree line, all the way around—that's the urban development land. As far as the eye can see." Well, Stuart, you are blind and cannot see past the self-interest of your political donors, your party's greed and its ideological obsession with destroying the environment for profit.

This is a dumb idea, and those opposite demean themselves and the positions they hold in this Parliament and this Government by running this agenda on behalf of the developer lobby instead of demanding sane public policy and better outcomes for the people they represent. A January 2017 Infrastructure NSW report commissioned by the Government states:

The Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley is changing from a semi-rural landscape to an urbanised floodplain … Up to 134,000 people live and work on the floodplain and could require evacuation. This number is forecast to double over the next 30 years.

There we have it. That is what this is all about. It is reckless in the extreme. The long-term plan, as this lot opposite calls it, for Warragamba Dam is something they have not done for 12 years. We are talking about a government that has been in power for 12 years. Only now, after a decade in power—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Oatley to order for the first time. I call the member for Oatley to order for the second time.

Ms TRISH DOYLE: —is it saying that it is an absolute priority to lift the Warragamba Dam wall. It has not put a single dollar into the project. Despite the fact that the budget handed down in June was the highest spending State budget in New South Wales' entire history, no money was allocated to Warragamba Dam. This cannot be a priority for the New South Wales Government. As has been noted in this Chamber by other members before, it is important that people understand that even if the wall is completed, the threat is not diminished. Some 45 per cent of floodwaters come from the Colo, Grose and Nepean rivers, which are tributaries that do not come over the top of the Warragamba Dam. It is the failed former member for Hawkesbury and his crooked Government that is egging on property developers to build bad housing on high-risk, flood-prone areas. He is not just disingenuous; he is outright hypocritical and he lies.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Oatley will come to order. He had an opportunity to speak in this debate if he wished to do so.

Ms TRISH DOYLE: He is being disingenuous because WaterNSW, former water Minister Niall Blair, ANU Associate Professor Jamie Pittock and many others acknowledge that raising the dam wall will not eliminate the risk of flooding in the region. I do not buy the line that raising the dam wall will mitigate flood risk in real terms for people living in the Hawkesbury region right now. All it will do is justify a huge amount of new property development on land that should be left well enough alone. This Government has refused to consider alternatives to raising the dam wall.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Hawkesbury to order for the first time.

Ms TRISH DOYLE: This Government has taken no interest in alternatives. It has pressed ahead with this issue and uses the fig leaf of flood risk as a justification to let property developers rip. Further, the Gundungurra people are fighting for Indigenous heritage protections for what is left of the Burragorang Valley so they can continue to tell and share their stories for generations to come. As the next big rain event begins, and with serious threats of more flooding, this Government has no plans for immediate flood mitigation. It is time to go.