Our areas willingly accommodate delivery of environmental water even if the sites being watered are not natural river fed wetlands.

It is time that OEH were accountable for the water they use and the water they dump.

However, during times of drought, it is highly concerning when a non-strategic, poorly timed, “suck it and see” approach is being used by OEH.

This flies in the face of commonsense as our natural instinct is to conserve every drop to use wisely during catastrophic times like now.

Instead of paying attention to beneficial, timely, co-management principles, OEH are putting parcels of water into low lying areas on private and public land just because they can and to see what might happen!

Much of OEH’s water portfolio was ‘acquired’ from irrigators via policy and rule changes and has been given priority over other water classifications like High Security (HS), stock and domestic and General Security (GS).

At one-minute past midnight on the 1 st July, most of OEH’s bucket is replenished all set to start the new watering year.

It doesn’t matter whether we have had above average rainfall or even floods; this water is not netted off against our environmental commitments.

OEH can trade water with little transparency or accountability.

It almost beggar’s belief that water that irrigators must pay fees and charges for, which would previously have been allocated to production, can now be put on the market to sell to farmers at inflated prices.

Water is our major input and if it’s made scarce, then prices will skyrocket.

With budgets so tight, it only takes one unlucky guess or one mistake for irrigators to go backwards and run at a loss.

Bureaucratic trashing of water is creating unnecessary stress and anxiety.

The flow on effect ripples through the whole community, creating further hardship for small businesses that support the farming sector and the community as a whole.

Minister Blair has often stated we need to place the same level of expectation for innovation and improvement on environmental watering as we place on producers (the paying customers).

We urgently need to clarify whether state environmental water management is meeting social, economic and environmental objectives for regional rural communities.

If not, then it makes sense to reallocate this water back to producers who do know how to use water productively and responsibly!

The news that the Liberal Party will not contest the seat of Wagga Wagga at the next election confirms that Premier Berejiklian has little interest in regional NSW. Wagga Wagga is a seat the Liberals held since the 1950s. But despite this, their decision to give up on it is no real surprise because the Berejiklian Government, in their heart of hearts, just doesn’t care about regional communities.

It is a government obsessed with wasting billions on Sydney stadiums while also presiding over the shambles that the Sydney light rail has become.

This exclusive focus on Sydney follows the disastrous forced council mergers and the greyhound ban that were imposed on regional communities without any consultation.

In contrast, I guarantee that Labor will contest every one of the 93 seats in the NSW Parliament because I’m interested in governing for every community in our state.

If Labor is elected, my priorities will be schools, hospitals, TAFEs and libraries, and creating local jobs with a $4.1 billion Regional Jobs Fund.