Tamworth water security funding announcement

The Northern Daily Leader

WATCH: The state's water minister came to Tamworth to give an update on the progress of an advanced recycling facility that could be the future of water security in regional NSW. Video by Jonathan Hawes

Transcript

00:00 It's great to be here again in Tamworth alongside Mayor Russell Webb to announce a $6 million

00:16 commitment from the New South Wales Government and the Commonwealth Government to get the

00:19 ball rolling on the advanced water treatment facility here.

00:23 This is a potential game changer for the Tamworth community.

00:26 It's leading technology doing advanced water recycling for industrial reuse.

00:31 We know there's a lot of the big industrial users here that do use a lot of water.

00:36 We want to support them to grow and grow this economy and provide jobs in town.

00:40 But we also want to make sure that there's water available for everyone for their industrial

00:44 use but also for town drinking water.

00:47 And so these opportunities to explore the potential of the advanced water treatment

00:51 facility I think is incredibly exciting.

00:53 It's exciting for the future of Tamworth.

00:55 And if we get this right here we could be looking to deliver these kind of facilities

00:59 in other regional areas as well.

01:01 But once again Tamworth leading the way and the New South Wales Government being here

01:04 with $6 million alongside the Commonwealth to make the business case happen.

01:09 Chethrow's previous experience in the Northern Territory, 25-50% in remote communities.

01:17 And it is critical that we actually get this happening now.

01:20 And I think what a lot of people probably don't understand is if we can get this water

01:23 purification plant up and running and we're saving 10-12 megalitres of water a day, that's

01:29 great for industry.

01:30 But that takes the pressure off the whole of the water system so that we've got so much

01:35 more water left for the urban use across our community.

01:38 This is potentially a big investment.

01:40 If we look to get this facility off the ground, we're talking about a big investment.

01:44 It's an investment we're willing to make but you've got to do the planning work first.

01:48 So we are getting started right now.

01:50 Eight into 24 months we'll sort of know what the scope is, what the costs are and then

01:55 we can make some decisions about whether we're going to go ahead.

01:57 Is there guarantee that there will be funding at the end of it though to sort of actually

02:01 build the plant?

02:03 Look at the moment we're not guaranteeing funding at the end.

02:05 You know there's not money in the budget to actually build the plant and I want to be

02:09 up front about that.

02:10 I'm very confident based on the work that the Tamworth Council has already done.

02:14 As Mayor Webb said, the Tamworth Council has already done a lot of work to show the benefits

02:20 of this project that we will be able to move towards delivery.

02:24 But unlike previous governments, I'm not going to pretend money's in the budget when it isn't.

02:28 What we are doing is getting the planning framework right.

02:31 We are doing the work now to make sure that when I come back up here and say it's locked

02:36 and loaded and it's in the budget, everyone knows the funding is there, the regulatory

02:41 approvals are there and the project's going ahead.

02:43 And before we get to that point, I'm not going to mislead the community about the stage that

02:49 we're up to.

02:50 The one thing I would say is this, it is a big investment.

02:52 It is a big commitment.

02:54 And I think people have been rightly frustrated in the past when announcements have been made

02:59 about big projects where the work hasn't been done, the planning hasn't been done, the regulatory

03:04 approvals haven't been finalised.

03:06 And that just leaves communities in the lurch because they are never going to see the fruits

03:11 of that investment if the planning work isn't done.

03:14 So it is important that we get that planning work right.

03:16 We need to know how much it's going to cost.

03:18 We need to know what regulatory approvals are required.

03:21 We need to know what planning approvals are required.

03:24 Doing that work can't be rushed.

03:26 And when you do rush it, and when you don't take the time to do that planning right, you

03:31 see projects fall over.

03:32 You see funding cut.

03:34 You see funding shortfalls.

03:35 You see budget blowouts.

03:36 That all happens when you haven't done the planning right.

03:39 That Dungale and Dam example is exactly the reason why we're doing it this way.

03:44 Because you can't announce projects that end up with a price tag a billion dollars over

03:49 what you initially flagged.

03:51 That is poor governance, poor public policy, and it really sells communities short.

03:56 So we are really confident that this project is going to stack up, but we're doing the

04:01 work to make sure that's the case, to give the community that confidence, to give industry

04:05 that confidence.

04:07 And the partnership that we have with Tamworth Council has been incredibly positive so far,

04:11 and I'm really looking forward to continuing that into the future.

04:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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