Natural disasters and environment ... Orange election candidates have their say

Flooding at the backend of 2022 devastated towns across the electorate including Molong and Eugowra. The 2019/20 Black Summer Bushfires impacted the entire region.

The CWD asked candidates for their views on the impacts of climate change, what new policies they would enact to protect their constituents, changes to disaster support, and more.

Comment from incumbent independent Phil Donato, Nationals' Tony Mileto, Labor's Heather Dunn, Greens' David Mallard, and Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers' Aaron Kelly is attached below.

Three last-minute candidates - Patricia Holt, Gillian Bramley, and George Bate - registered Wednesday and were unable to be contacted prior to publishing. The trio will be included in all future coverage.

Natural disasters and the environment feature as the topic of this week's candidate Q&A. If you have a question you'd like put to election-hopefuls, let us know in the comments below.

The 2023 NSW election is scheduled for March 25. Everything you need to know can be found here.

David Mallard, Greens

We know that global warming means that unprecedented disasters and more intense fire, drought and flood events are part of our present and our future. That means a key part of safeguarding our communities is limiting how much warming will happen, by phasing out coal and gas and rapidly shifting to renewable energy.

The realities of the climate crisis mean that many of our communities will have to transform themselves to remain safe. Communities should be empowered to decide what those changes look like and lead the decisions about how they will address the risks they face. But those who have caused the crisis should be the ones who pay.

The Greens will introduce a Climate Disaster Levy on the fossil fuel industry, which has known for decades it was the leading cause of climate change but has actively opposed all moves to take action.

The funds will be directed into a Climate Recovery and Transformation Authority which will help communities develop and implement co-designed Community Transformation Plans, and will also proactively offer voluntary buybacks, house relocations, land swaps and retrofitting of homes to affected residents and those that are likely to experience climate disasters in the future.

The Greens will also expand funding for NSW emergency services and the Rural Fire Service, and will support volunteer and community groups at the frontline of this crisis.

Tony Mileto, National Party

N/A

Phil Donato, Independent

I have long advocated for the Wyangala Dam wall to be raised, which would both increase water security in dry times as well as mitigating flooding in the Lachlan Valley.

The NSW Liberal National Government promised to have shovels in the ground with this water infrastructure project underway by October 2020. Two-and-a-half years later we are yet to see any commencement.

Since first being elected in 2016 I have repeatedly called on the NSW Government to flood-proof the Newell Highway to prevent reoccurrence of the 2016 flood event, which saw Forbes cut-off.

The closure of the Newell Highway south of Forbes caused significant economic impact to the town, and several businesses feared bankruptcy as a result. The Government have moved too slowly in remedying this flood-prone area; given the Newell is such an important supply route to communities in our electorate, and beyond, this is requires to be of a higher priority.

Having regard to bushfire, our farmers need greater control over their own land regarding bushfire mitigation practices, including backburning and creation of firebreaks etc... Our State and National Parks' lock-it-up-and-leave-it approach to land management has not been conducive to bushfire mitigation and prevention.

It's been proven the world over that community access and use of these lands has raised revenue to direct towards improved land management, including fire mitigation measures."

Heather Dunn, Labor Party

Improved early warning systems. NSW Labor recently announced it will invest in a new world leading natural disaster detection system to better protect communities in high risk areas.

Designed and built here in Australia, these advanced warning systems will use sophisticated sensor technology to predict changing weather patterns in real time, giving local residents time to evacuate safely and direct emergency service workers to the highest risk areas.

The commitment comes after experts on the independent NSW Flood Inquiry warned that current disaster warning systems are outdated and inadequate.

Stopping floodplain development. New South Wales has experienced an escalating number of major flood events in recent years. It's increasingly clear that we cannot continue to develop and build on dangerous floodplains, and risk putting more people in harm's way.

There are too many government entities responsible for planning, flood recovery and reconstruction, and while all intentions are good, there is often too much buck-passing and a lack of accountability. Other than the Minister for Local Government, there are five separate ministers in the current government with various planning powers.

NSW Labor will adopt a proactive approach to planning and mitigating against the impact of floods and charge one Minister with the responsibility of stopping further development on dangerous floodplains.

Aaron Kelly, Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers

The SFF has always had the policy that farmers and landholders should be able to manage their properties to reduce the fuel load, reducing the chance of fire on their property. This can be achieved through changes to NSW zoning laws and reducing the red tape involved in this decision-making process.

Ensuring our emergency services are adequately resourced so they can respond to disasters. We need to ensure the Government of the day is driving recruitment for all emergency services, that the buildings are fit-for-purpose and that they have access to all the required equipment.

David Mallard, Greens

Government responses have been piecemeal, reactive and insufficient. We need a government that recognises the reality of a changing future in which disaster events are going to be beyond our past experience and both more frequent and intense.

Most importantly, we need to be proactive in making the transformations that are needed to adjust to the changes that climate change is bringing, which in some cases may require us to radically adjust the way we live from the patterns established through colonial settlement.

Tony Mileto, National Party

N/A

Phil Donato, Independent

The flooding experienced across our state over the past two years is unprecedented. The Lismore/Northern Rivers was an extraordinary event for Government to respond to, but I expected they would have learned much in the aftermath in supporting the financial needs of the community as a whole, and the individuals personally affected.

Whilst we appreciate both federal and state government response to the relatively recent floods experienced in our electorate, I expected both the coordination of services responding to flood-impacted communities would be more streamlined and efficient than the experiences relayed to me indicate that is actually was. Initial government funding announced was focused on business and agriculture, and while these are important to support, there was disparity is support of people - families - living in flood-impacted communities.

There remains disparity in government support for communities here compared with communities in Northern NSW. We don't begrudge their support, but the people living elsewhere in the state who've been flood-impacted, which includes our electorate, deserve access to the same support packages. Much response work was carried out by volunteers, and more needed to be done by local, state and federal government services.

Heather Dunn, Labor Party

The politicising of the recovery grants process while people have lost everything is an utter disgrace.

Under a NSW Labor Government:

- Grants programs will have clear, transparent and public guidelines, timeframes and eligibility criteria that inform the awarding of grants.

- Agency recommendations should be in writing and compare applications to the selection criteria, and where Ministers depart from the advice of their agencies in the awarding of grants, they should do so in writing and provide reasons.

Aaron Kelly, Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers

It needs to be delivered in a faster and more effective way. Many of the documents that agencies require to process grants have been destroyed in the disaster, which further sets back the application.

On the ground, assessors must engage with the community and ground-proof the applications to release the assistance as soon as possible. In the review process following recent disasters, it has been found that applying for financial assistance or grants is complex. Applicants were often interviewed multiple times, leading to frustration and trauma.

The Government has been dragging the chain on a proper recovery and assistance database that would allow people only to tell their story once, I would push for that to be implemented as soon as possible.

David Mallard, Greens

Yes, this has been projected by experts for some time and now we are seeing the reality take hold. It's not about attributing climate change as the cause of a single disaster, but that the shifts in patterns of weather patterns and the amounts of water vapour that can be held in the atmosphere mean that in a warming world, more intense fire, flood and drought events become more likely. A

ny public leader not acknowledging this and actively talking about how we address it is letting their communities down.

The government needs to be doing much more. Most political candidates and parties will at least talk positively now about investing in renewable energy for NSW, but that in itself isn't enough.

As the world's fourth largest coal exporter, NSW has a key role to play in addressing the climate crisis. We need to plan a transition to end coal and gas by 2030, including investment and support for the communities and workers who will be affected by the shutdown of fossil fuel industries.

We also need to be on the front foot with climate change adaptation and transforming our communities before the next unprecedented disaster arrives.

Climate change is here, it's happening, and we're causing it. How much worse we make it - for the future of our kids and grandkids - is in our hands. Governments need to not just make noises in the right direction, but deliver all of the possible actions they can to make these changes and prepare our communities for the future.

Tony Mileto, National Party

Research from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO shows our bushfire seasons are becoming longer and more extreme. In response to the independent Bushfire Inquiry, the NSW Liberal and Nationals Government has established the State's first Bushfire and Natural Hazard Research Centre to help make NSW a world leader in better understanding and predicting the risk of fire and other natural hazards on communities.

Phil Donato, Independent

Our climate has always changed and it can be dramatic; It's perfectly captured in Dorothy McKellar's famous poem My Country and her reference to Australia being a land of droughts and flooding rains. Going forward, there clearly needs to be better planning for where we build and live.

Heather Dunn, Labor Party

NSW Labor have committed to taking responsible action on climate age to mitigate long term climate disasters.

Labor will legislate the state's carbon emissions reduction targets, as well as establish a Net Zero Commission.The state's net zero carbon emissions by 2050 target, and its 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions on 2005 levels by 2030 target are merely aspirational.

Aaron Kelly, Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers

The SFF acknowledges with a growing population, the activity of humans over time and other naturally occurring climactic conditions will have some impact on the earth and climate in the long term.

We would support any scientific evidence-based approach to handling the impacts of humans on the climate that did not unnecessarily restrict the activities of farmers, resources, transport, manufacturing, or any other industry.

David Mallard, Greens

Preparing for the next unprecedented flood, fire or drought events requires us as communities to have conversations that confront the challenging realities, while having compassion and empathy for the trauma and loss that has already occurred and while empowering our residents to lead the transformation of these communities.

We need to work with communities to identify the ways we can adapt to reduce the impacts of these events. That includes relocating and shifting patterns of use of our built environment, such as buildings and roads.

It's important to understand that we can't engineer infrastructure that will prevent any future climate disaster events - as we've seen through the tragic events in places like Lismore, the unprecedented nature of events that will continue to unfold in future means that building bigger barriers or dams or other infrastructure doesn't provide a guarantee that the rest of life can go on unchanged.

This means we have hard decisions and sometimes radical changes to make, but if the community is given the leadership and resources to do so then we can make the changes toward a better future.

One note on fire preparation - it's a common claim that "greenies" (despite not being in control of government) contribute to bushfire disasters by preventing hazard reduction burns (often incorrectly referred to as "backburning"). This is nonsense, and it also distracts from the reality that global warming itself is making it harder to prepare for fires - higher temperatures limit the opportunities for safe hazard reduction work, and now the intense rainfalls associated with a warming-charged series of La Nina years means there are large fuel loads which are beginning to dry out as La Nina fades and we again face a warmer year.

Tony Mileto, National Party

The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government takes an all-hazards approach to natural disasters and emergency management to ensure better support and protection for communities across the State.

In December, in response to the independent Flood Inquiry, we established the NSW Reconstruction Authority which has responsibility for hazard mitigation planning as well as disaster recovery.

The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government is making our communities safer, stronger and more resilient to natural disasters through a record $4.2 billion investment in emergency services, which includes the delivery of more fire trucks, trained personnel, rescue equipment, enhanced communications and technology improvements.

On top of this, more than $6 billion has been committed to flood recovery projects alone over the past 12 months, including more than $850 million paid out in grants. We'll continue to support all disaster-impacted communities across our State.

Phil Donato, Independent

This is covered in my above responses.

Heather Dunn, Labor Party

As mentioned earlier, improved early warning systems and stopping developments on dangerous flood plans. I am committed to working with all communities recovering from disasters to ensure they are supported.

Aaron Kelly, Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers

Bushfires in NSW are becoming more intense and more frequent due to the loss of active and adaptive management of our land over the last few decades.

By this, I mean hazard reduction burns on public lands and removing restrictive private property rights that prevent landholders from managing their properties. This needs to change, and it can be done through our planning and zoning laws.

David Mallard, Greens

We need government to deliver a statewide coordinated, strategic and community-centred approach to transforming our patterns of residential settlement to prepare for further climate disasters and address the losses already suffered.

The Greens will place a levy of $20 per tonne of carbon on coal exports in NSW, producing at least $7 billion over the first two years.

The funds will be used to establish the Climate Recovery and Transformation Authority, which will assess communities across NSW that have been or are predicted to be impacted by climate disasters, and it will assist those communities to co-design plans for their own transformation.

The CRTA will proactively offer voluntary buybacks, house relocations, land swaps and retrofitting of homes.

Tony Mileto, National Party

The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government is actively working with Cabonne Council to assess a potential buyback program for its flood-impacted towns.

We are also providing housing support to assist with the immediate and ongoing recovery of flood victims in the Cabonne Shire, including Back Home grants, Rental Support payments, caravans and 'pod' modular homes.

Phil Donato, Independent

The personal experiences relayed to me by many who have endured the rigorous insurance claims process has been troubling, to put it mildly.

Many have resorted to referring their matter to the Insurance Council, or even to a legal representative to assist with rejected, challenged or stalled claims. Increased scrutiny over insurance companies and their products would be an avenue worth pursuing.

Heather Dunn, Labor Party

No matter where you live, or who you vote for in New South Wales, your government must support you, particularly in the event of a natural disaster.

This government set up a deeply flawed and highly politicised grants system in the wake of the Black Summer Bushfire season 2019-20, and now we are seeing the disaster from the home-buy-back program.

As mentioned earlier we need to look to mitigate the long term risks of climate disasters and stop approving developments on dangerous flood plains.

Aaron Kelly, Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers

An inquiry into land acquisition in the past has found the department has been failing to follow legislation, policy and court precedents. This needs to be improved. Any buyback should be done respectfully and should be a like-for-like replacement.

Communication from departments and insurance companies to disaster-affected communities needs to improve. The complex application process can often re-traumatise people, leading to even longer delays.

Many disaster-affected communities have expressed confusion over their eligibility for buyback programs and the difference between insurance premiums.

A proper recovery and assistance database would help in the consistency and efficiency of these programs.

David Mallard, Greens

As I've said, decisions about how to address climate impacts should be led by the communities themselves, so this should be part of the discussion about the future for Molong residents.

But as part of that conversation we should acknowledge that infrastructure solutions won't eliminate the risk, especially as the intensity of disaster events will continue to increase into the future, and that disrupting the natural environment also brings its own impacts that need to be considered.

Tony Mileto, National Party

If elected, I will discuss any proposals from Cabonne Shire Council or any other stakeholders.

Phil Donato, Independent

As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Any funding directed towards preventing homes and businesses being flooded will inevitably save in the longer term.

I would encourage cooperation among local and state government in exploring permanent flood protection barriers to protect local communities. In doing so, insurance will be more likely to be made available and in-turn more affordable for family homes and business in currently flood-prone areas.

Heather Dunn, Labor Party

We need to invest more on resilience measures to prevent these disasters from having such catastrophic impacts in the first place. If elected I will work with local councils to mitigate risks and improve community preparation for natural disasters.

Aaron Kelly, Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers

The SFF would support any disaster mitigation measures provided the Government went through the appropriate due process to reach its final decision.

We do not need short-term, knee-jerk reactions that are more political statements than disaster mitigation.

We should explore all our options and undertake authentic consultation with the affected Communities.

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