I opposed 2018 laws that would allow raising the Warragamba Dam to override existing prohibitions on flooding the Blue Mountains National Park and world heritage area and I oppose the government’s recent decision to fast-track planning approval for this destructive project.

Raising the dam wall is not about protecting existing residents or property from flood as the government’s “people not plants” rhetoric would have you think, but about giving developers a sugar-hit to build new homes for profit. Water experts have presented the government with a range of measures to protect existing residents at a lower cost but raising the dam by 14 metres is preferred because it would free the floodplains for new development.

Around 4,700 hectares of national park and 65 kilometres of wilderness streams will be inundated with muddy dam water, drowning fifty different types of threatened plant and animal species. At risk are Sydney’s last wild population of emus. Aboriginal cultural heritage sites of the Gundungurra people will be destroyed after much was lost when the dam was first built in 1960.

Raising the Warragamba Dam is not world’s best practice and will not mitigate all flood risks – there is always a risk a rain event can breach the wall no matter how high you go and not all western Sydney flooding comes from the dam. Heavy rainfall is becoming the norm in Sydney thanks to climate change and it is time to stop building on the floodplains.  

The Sydney Morning Herald editorial sums up the reasons this is a bad idea > HERE.

My 2018 speech opposing raising the dam wall > HERE.

Join the campaign against the project > HERE.