…that any water study carried out on the Liverpool Plains must be a scientifically rigorous, catchment-wide, independent and transparent process and that its results must be acted upon in government planning decisions.

Former NSW Environment Minister Pam Allan is the independent facilitator of the Water Study Working Group (other members include CCAG delegates, NSW Farmers, Namoi Water, NSW Minerals Council, NSW DPI and BHP).

After touring the prime agricultural land of the Liverpool Plains yesterday and visiting The Blockade site, Ms Allan was keen to take and answer the communities’ questions and hear concerns about the ongoing process of ensuring that an appropriate water study was set up.

Ms Allan clearly understood community concerns that even the most rigorously planned water study could be ignored under present NSW planning processes and that all responsible departments, especially Planning, needed to be involved at the earliest stages of discussions to prevent the study from being a purely ‘academic’ exercise.  Ms Allan indicated she was investigating measures to achieve that result.

We are encouraged.  We look forward to continuing to work on the Objectives and Terms of Reference within the Pam Allan Working Group whilst multi-tasking through this busy and very promising harvest.