TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW WITH DAVID EISENHAUER, SOUNDS OF THE MOUNTAINS, 6 OCTOBER 2022
Subjects: Flooding, road funding, agriculture, Inland Rail, water infrastructure, Agricultural Shows
E&OE
8.36am
DAVID EISENHAUER
Our State Emergency Service and many of our volunteers wear a couple of hats around our region during these very wet times, now we are talking obviously our flood watch is currently through the region
We are going to catch up now with Member for Riverina, Michael McCormack joins us on the line. Michael, very good morning to you.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Good morning, David.
DAVID EISENHAUER
How are you?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
I am very well. I am high and dry at the moment, but gee the rain has been steady, and I see that Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting that Tumut’s only reprieve over the next seven or eight days is going to be Monday. That’s the day where there’s a bit of sunny skies but for the rest of the next week or so it’s going to be dull, grey, leaden and rainy skies, so we just hope that that rain is not too heavy.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Yeah well, I know talking tomorrow anywhere up towards 30 to 50mm for tomorrow, today only a few millilitres around, sort of lifting fairly high cloud at the moment.
But it’s certainly, Michael, one of the issues, I know it’s an issue for you and you have lived in this district forever and the state of our region’s roads I mean it’s no one’s fault it’s the weather but gee it’s taking its toll.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
The ground is just saturated, the sodden ground, is not giving the roads any chance, of course you get heavy vehicles passing over already damaged shoulders and potholes where you can throw a bit of asphalt on them, I know council workers right across the area have been doing that. But it’s only a matter of the next truck that rolls over is going to force that asphalt out and the potholes are just going to get bigger and bigger as they are.
I have called on the Federal Government to look at some emergency funding whether that’s the doubling of the Roads to Recovery funding or an increase in the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure fund which I put in place when I was Deputy Prime Minister … it doesn’t really matter, councils just need the funding, and they need it very, very soon so that when the weather does dry up, they can get some workers out and re-do those roads. Maintenance and upkeep is costing councils a huge amount and they can apply for and they have done so, so many of them (are looking at) increasing rates but that only hurts the local ratepayers and I appreciate the rate base is not high for councils. But we don’t want to slug the ratepayers any more, they are already paying enough through taxes and other things and, of course, the high cost of living. So I think the Federal Government, it is incumbent upon them to look to see what they can do particularly across those Eastern States, which have been so hard hit by the heavy weather.
DAVID EISENHAUER
The big thing, Michael, and we talk exports with your international portfolio there we look at harvest season coming up very soon. One the big concerns at the moment, we have moved on from the days of the little 587 headers and the light tractors and things we have got big heavy machinery and very wet soil and there’s pictures of those spray rigs out and about, up to their axles in mud.
It’s going to be a challenge for our farmers this year to get the crop off, I mean the canola, and everything is looking pretty good but the ground itself is not going to be very kind to these big machines this year which is a bit of a concern.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
The swathe of green and gold right across the region has been remarkable, especially these recent weeks when the canola has come out in full bloom but not much point of having a bumper crop in the paddock if you can’t get it off, so the worry is that, as you quite correctly point out, getting that heavy harvesting gear into paddocks, but even up and down the roads. I mean many of the harvesting is done by contractors now days, the gear is just so big. And of course they get in those paddocks, and they sweep it all off and they get all the grain in the bins very, very quickly. But if the weather doesn’t improve, they aren’t going to be able to do that.
DAVID EISENHAUER
No it is a concern, some of the flatter country there where it doesn’t drain that’s one of the big areas, the southern slopes areas will go OK in some paddocks. But I have seen some areas where it’s just a quagmire.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
That’s so very true. You drive out near Temora where BFB have got a lot of the cropping in – that’s what they do – and they do it very well. It’s just the inaccessibility into the paddocks which is just pools and pools of water lying on them. And of course the ground is soaked and saturated, so we just need some drying weather. It’s funny to sort of say, it wasn’t that long ago, only two or three years ago we were sort of decrying the fact that it wouldn’t rain, and now it’s raining too much. But that’s the weather and we all make do and let’s hope that we can get some of those dry days and some of that road funding.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Now, Michael, I know one thing that once we got the crop off and it’s in the trucks, it goes to the silos, we have to transport, and a lot of that transport’s via road, a lot by rail as well. We see the grain trains rumbling around the branch lines, you know, December, January, February. Inland rail, it’s been making news on Landline a special feature each week for the last couple of weeks, how is it travelling Michael? It is something you and I have talked about for a number of years now.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well the submissions have now closed for the public to make their applications and air any concerns they might have to the State Planning Authority in relation to Illabo-to-Albury section and that of course takes in Wagga Wagga. Now I know there are a lot of residents, local residents, who are concerned the double stacking of the freight trains and the increased volume of traffic is going to be of concern to Wagga Wagga residents. I appreciate that this line has been designated for some time, I appreciate the fact that ARTC has done a lot of consultation or tried to with Wagga Wagga’s City Council. Some of the meetings council either chose not to turn up or didn’t turn up at all.
So that’s a concern but I appreciate those submissions have closed but it will be interesting to see what comes of them. If people genuinely want a bypass, there’s enough clammer for a bypass, I think the community’s wishes should be at least considered, seriously looked at and a bypass at least designed and costed of where will it go, how much will it cost, what impact will that have because obviously to put any line somewhere you are going to go through people’s private land, that’s not the case at the moment going on the Sydney-to-Melbourne line, so you are going to have an impact then on local land holders and potentially houses if it goes from Bomen through to say round near Kapooka or the back of Kapooka there somewhere. Let’s have a look at this, if there’s enough submissions that want that, well I think the ARTC needs to seriously consider that.
DAVID EISENHAUER
There’s some issues out in the Western Districts in part of the electorate Michael there, too, with the culverts and the drainage and the alignment and things like that, Landline does a great job in so many areas of the agricultural sphere. A good team of reporters there.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Oh indeed, many of those organisations, many of those newspapers and media outlets were absolutely calling for the Inland Rail and making sure it passes through their town and their communities. And now of course when you get a few people up in arms about it, of course they are the same ones publicising those concerns, and that’s the job of the media, it is to balance it out. Let’s not lose a bit of national infrastructure for the sake of – making sure we hit the right progress in the right places. This has already enabled Wagga Wagga to receive tens of millions of dollars of Enabling Roads in the Riverina Intermodal Freight Logistics Hub out at Bomen to be upgraded to a Special Activation Precinct. A huge investment has been made in Wagga Wagga through Inland Rail, it will have huge advantages. Already Austrack is building all the sleepers for New South Wales and Queensland, a contract worth tens of millions of dollars. And of course protecting and preserving 36 jobs for a company that probably might have packed up and left Wagga Wagga, indeed, because there wasn’t any work. These sorts of things have to be taken into consideration, all these factors need to be looked at and let’s get on with the best possible option.
DAVID EISENHAUER
And it’s like our Snowy Project, which is under way at the moment in the hills, weather is playing a bit of havoc there, they have had to deal with things like snow and things but it’s making its mark extremely well. We are actually catching up today and talking to Paul’s successor, of course Paul broadly spoke about it last time we were talking there with Paul as the CEO, and we are going to be talking more about Snowy Hydro. But we have got some pretty big infrastructure projects happening around our region. One of those affects your electorate in the Inland Rail, up the top here in the mountains is the progress of Tantangara and at Lobs Hole and gee wizz it’s an amazing process, these gigantic machines and big transport. But again the region’s roads come in again, it’s everywhere you look, Michael, isn’t it at the moment?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well the other thing, too, is I have noticed that Dom Perottet, the NSW Premier, out asking for a 50/50 funding with the NSW Government for Warragamba Dam. Yes, very important, talking about concerns there that people who may potentially by the year 2040 be very much under flood threat as they are now. But no mention of raising Wyangala. Now of course you raise Wyangala by 10 metres to 95 metres, increase storage capacity by 650 gigalitres – that’s more water than Sydney Harbour – and you know we have increased the National Water Grid funding federally to billions of dollars. Dom Perottet was in Forbes where it’s been flooded, you know every seven years on average since 1887, that’s a lot of floods. He was there on November 18, 2021, looking at Scott Darcy’s farm that was basically under water, talking to SES and RFS and other wonderful volunteers about the floods that hit that Central Western NSW town at that time. I think its incumbent upon the Premier and NSW MPs to now ask for a 50/50 share for funding for Wyangala Dam, which would protect Forbes, protect the Newell Highway, protect West Wyalong and make sure to also increase agriculture. We have just got to get on and build infrastructure, I know it affects people I get that. I understand that you can’t build anything without it having an impact on someone. But we have to put the national interest, long-term national interest first and foremost.
DAVID EISENHAUER
That again is something that’s popped up from time to time, as the comments from the farmers directly affected out that way with the loss of their land. I suppose you could wind the clock back to the days when Blowering was being built, Michael, the beautiful farming land that sits underneath the dam now a big reserve, a big flood mitigation wall as well, so it is serving its purpose extremely well there.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
That’s more than 100 years now since Barren Jack was looked at, a dam built there and of course that has not only propped up Griffith an area which the explorers said no person would ever want to move out here and set up camp. Well, I tell you what they have turned that into one of the nation’s greatest food baskets. That’s what you can do when you add water inland and make sure you provide the right funding in the right places. You can build that infrastructure that can absolutely mitigate against floods and build agriculture to ensure that, well you mentioned exports earlier, that we can continue to export to the world the best and freshest and greenest food available.
DAVID EISENHAUER
And those very products, that very produce, is on display at our regional Shows which are under way across the region. Michael, you have attended a few of those along with your State Member, of course, Steph has opened a couple here and there, Cowra and Young, Junee is coming up very soon, Wagga. What’s it been like? I haven’t been to the Shows yet, I’m off to Junee in a couple of weeks, but good crowds?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
It’s been great. It’s good to see people out, not only in side show alley but perhaps even more importantly in the exhibition halls. And not just the clean, green produce but also seeing some of the knitting and the colouring in the kids do and all those sorts of things which are very traditional and very much make country towns what they are. And it’s good to see some of those agricultural shows back on their feet with better infrastructure. I know we had a fund there. I was just at Grenfell the other day admiring the Showground’s new horse stalls and the new 36 horse stalls that make such a difference and you just can’t believe how many community members turned out to Grenfell for the official opening of the Nev Condon Horse Stalls. Was a great man of the Central West, a bit of a rugged horseman himself who’s done so much to volunteer and as a horseman for their mountain muster, they were very pleased to see him there in Weddin Shire working so hard. He passed away a few years ago, his widow was there to ensure the horse stalls were open and family members were very chuffed by it all as they should be.
DAVID EISENHAUER
It’s an interesting time when we go through it. Shows that have had droughts surrounding them, or looming droughts, have been looking at the summer months ahead. This year it’s a little bit different, it’s lovely to see the infrastructure spend that have been happening, too, on the upgrades to these wonderful facilities.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well indeed, the Nev Condon Horse Stalls were actually built under a Drought Communities fund, it’s hard to believe that when we opened them there was mud everywhere. But that’s what happens. But you know, governments need to respond to these, and we did respond when we were in government. Now I call on the Federal Government to very much respond, as far as this road funding is concerned because the roads are just dangerous. I would mention to people particularly this time, Dave, if I may, that if the roads have water across them and there is a road sign closure in front of you, please do not enter that flooded road area. We have seen the tragedy at Tullamore and we don’t want to see others, there was an accident at Bilbul yesterday where a car skidded off the road into a telegraph pole and a person has lost their life. It’s so, so sad but in some cases unnecessary, as the roads are closed for a reason. SES and councils, they put those signs up for a reason and it is because the road is dangerous and never enter flood waters across roads.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Big message that the SES continually talk about, we have the brand-new system that’s in force that’s in line with our Rural Fire Service our watch and acts and alerts for catastrophic signage and so forth. Michael, that’s going to make things a bit easier to understand around communities, with a lot more cross-border works. As noticed the SES has started sending out a different style of updates for flood watches and so forth. That’s all designed to keep the community safer.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
If Black Summer taught us anything it is that co-ordination is key. And I know that the job the Shane Fitzsimmons and others did, yourself included, saved lives. There’s just no questions. Sounds of Mountains actually saved lives by its broadcast. So did our good old folk at the ABC and others. Those regular up-to-date local, I can’t emphasise that word enough – local – updates and people need to follow them. If they hear something, see something, know that its official or an alert via radio then make sure they follow it. Please.
DAVID EISENHAUER
It’s well-researched and it’s something people think “oh it’s a bit early”. It’s better to be a bit early than a bit late.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Dead on time.
DAVID EISENHAUER
My word, very true. Michael, it’s coming up to news time, anything to add today on our fortnightly catch up on the station?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Stay dry, make sure you take your brolley with you wherever you go and let’s chat again in a fortnight.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Indeed, Michael thank you very much for joining us today of course, with so many different portfolios, one day we have to sit down and write a book on Michael McCormack because the portfolios and the jobs and the books you have written.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
I’m not sure that would be a best seller but anyway. Some of the stories if I wrote the true story, it might well be. Some of the meetings I have been in, they have been fascinating of course having been Deputy Chair of the National Security Council and other important meetings at a time when we were out there saving lives. I’ll tell you what, what the Government did do to protect and save lives and livelihoods during those years of Covid. It almost seems a blur these days, society is opening up and the like. It was interesting times, I know we did a good job as the Government, as I know there are tens of thousands of people alive today because of the policies and positions we took. But tough times, difficult times but it was the right time to make right decisions.
Thank you, David, we will talk again soon.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Indeed, and thank you, Michael, thank you for your time as well.
Ends 8:54 AM