Greens NSW MP John Kaye welcomed Hunter Water's belated acknowledgement of the policy of two successive governments to not build Tillegra Dam. However both the utility and Finance and Service Minister Greg Pearce must reject the Native Dog Creek proposal and set up an independent land use planning process.
'Tillegra project officially dead in the water', Newcastle Herald, 18 May 2012
Dr Kaye said: "A Hunter Water driven land use strategy will inevitably focus on building the Tillegra Mark 2 option, Native Dog Creek, and maximising the sale prices of whatever land they no longer want.
"Either way, it is the local community who will bear the brunt of Hunter Water's greed.
"Even if the Native Dog Creek proposal goes the way of Tillegra, Hunter Water will still try to maximise the sale price of the land, not build an economically sustainable farming community.
"The O'Farrell government has shown its utter contempt for the Hunter by allowing the utility to design a land use strategy that inevitably will be focused on dam building and profit maximising from land sales.
"The viability of the community left behind will come a poor last place in the process," Dr Kaye said.
