THE Opposition’s draft proposal to build up to 100 new dams
across Australia is grandiose and ill-conceived, and should be
rejected by the Opposition leader. Implementing this policy
would be extremely expensive, unnecessary and environmentally
destructive. With a total cost of up to $30 billion, Australians
should be asking whether this fiscally irresponsible plan is in
the national interest. The draft policy cites food production,
energy generation and flood mitigation as reasons for building
dams across the country, but not one of these stands up to close
scrutiny. NSW’s rivers, wetlands and freshwater fish populations
have been severely degraded by the construction of dams and
over-extraction of water. In the Murray Darling Basin, with
water entitlements fully allocated, building dams will make no
difference to the availability of water for agriculture.
Agricultural production increases in NSW will be driven by
improvements in water efficiency, not the construction of more
dams. For our towns and cities,