Special thanks to St Patrick's Primary School, Marian High School, St Mary's at Yoogali and the Griffith City Council and to those who contributed to the Christmas giving trees.

It seems wherever I drive in regional NSW, there is one consistent site beholden to visitors in every town and city.

They all have their own neglected, underfunded showground full of derelict builds from a bygone era.

I believe it is time for the State and Federal Governments to step up and start funding significant upgrades to modernise these facilities across NSW.

Currently, too much responsibility has been left on a handful of volunteer Showground Committee members, and despite these volunteers best efforts, the impacts of underfunded, under resourced showgrounds are clearly visible.

Good rainfall events in some parts of northern NSW have produced minor to moderate flood warnings, bringing with it much confusion about whether those on the floodplains can harvest water or not.

Many argue that capturing the current flows is acceptable as they would not make it all the way to the Darling or to Menindee. This is what sets the northern system and the southern system poles apart.

In the southern part of NSW, on the Murrumbidgee and the Murray, water is stored in dams, and as a result water is allocated to the environment and human needs prior to farmers having access to water to grow food and fibre.

In contrast, in the north of the state the capture and diversion of water from the environment has taken precedence over downstream and environmental needs.

What many people fail to understand is even if water from flood / rainfall events does not make it to Menindee or further downstream, those initial events are critical to wetting up the system so that the next flow which comes through travels further, or perhaps in a terminal system it will help recharge groundwater.

When downstream needs are not given priority there are wider consequences which many in the decision making headquarters fail to understand.

When the Darling is not contributing to flows across the South Australian border the Murray is not only meeting the short fall in entitlement delivery, the Murray is also paying for the conveyance of that water.

Where does this water come from? In the Murray system it is the farmer who is given water last, so it comes from the bucket of water which staple food producers share.

The south went through the pain over two decades ago of ensuring the environment and human needs came first and that water was measured to the cupful.

Until the NSW Department and Minister are prepared to go through some pain to ensure the same equity exists in the North, the NSW Minister will continue to pick winners and losers - the winners are not those in the south.

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