SCOTT LEVI, PRESENTER: The Federal Member for Shortland who takes in that part of the world, Pat Conroy, joins us on the line. Good morning, Mr. Conroy.
PAT CONROY, MEMBER FOR SHORTLAND: Good morning, Scott. How are you?
LEVI: I'm well. Why was this dredge an election promise? Is it really that important?
CONROY: It is really important. I've heard from my constituents that this is a really important issue for them for a number of reasons. One, it impacts on the enjoyability of the lake. For too long people have been stuck trying to not just sail keeled yachts, but just fish in the lake and getting stuck on sandbars. So it impacted enjoyment of what is a magnificent natural feature. Secondly, it actually distracted efforts for Lake Macquarie Marine Rescue which is the busiest marine rescue in the state. Their figures provided to me a few years back said that 50 per cent of all their rescues were pulling boats off the sandbars. So that distracts them from their core duty of saving people's lives.
So this was about safety, this was about enjoyment of the lake and economic studies done by the Council have shown that by having a permanent dredge of Swansea Channel, that will lead to more tourism and create 364 direct jobs and almost a thousand indirect jobs. So great for the enjoyment of the lake, great for safety for sailors and mariners. and great for local jobs.
LEVI: Now is it correct - according to one of our listeners, he was saying that it can be put on the back of a giant truck and taken to Ettalong when the job at Swansea's done, obviously it doesn't have to dredge there permanently and also do the channel at Half Tide Rocks?
CONROY: Yes, this whole thing was constructed in a way where my commitment and the Federal Government's commitment was to spend $10 million on a dredge and a pipeline to move the sand to support local beaches at Blacksmiths and a boat ramp. But while we need a permanent dredge, which means a dredge that is going through and campaigning every year in Lake Macquarie, it doesn't need to be working in Lake Macquarie 52 weeks a year. So we designed this so that the dredge could then be made available for other local needs. People have been talking about Ettalong, that's obviously one option. Other options up and down the coast, either coastal entrances or lakes that need support. So we're really proud that this dredge not only will benefit people using Lake Macquarie, it will benefit people up and down the Central Coast as well.
LEVI: Paul called in, and we've been talking about this, it's been a big feature of the program yesterday and for weeks now – the massive amount of flood mitigation. According to coastal engineers dredging the channel properly at The Entrance would do five and a half thousand homes at risk. I mean, that surely would have to be a priority. Will it be able to be launched onto that waterway even though it's pretty shallow?
CONROY: Well ultimately it's a decision for the State Government. What we've provided is the community assets. So we provided $10 million to build the dredge and the associated equipment. We've handed it over to Lake Macquarie City Council, and then they've very smartly done a funding deal with the State Government who's put in $6 million to operate it every year in Lake Macquarie. And the NSW Government owns the dredge, will own the dredge rather, and they've made public statements that they want to see it available up and down the coast. And that was part of our funding agreement. So this is a great example of all three levels of government working together that will lead to better community outcomes, not just in Lake Macquarie – whether it's Ettalong or The Entrance or other places, there's a tonne of potential to have this community asset working very, very regularly up and down the coast.
LEVI: How can the Central Coast Council put their hand up for this? They don't seem that keen. We were talking about it yesterday on the program, with studies revealing that dredging the channel could reduce the peak of floods by 300 millimetres. That reduction equates to a major flood becoming a moderate flood, a moderate flood becoming a minor flood. The reduction in tangible costs could be more than $6 million for each flooding event. So surely that's even more important than keeping a navigation channel open – 5,000 homes being, you know, saved flooding.
CONROY: Well, I obviously encourage them to engage with the State Government and the state representatives on this. I worked very closely with Yasmin Catley, who's not only the State Member for Swansea so overlaps with my electorate, but the Minister for the Hunter, and we've delivered an outcome that benefits everyone. And I would urge Central Coast Council to talk to Yasmin, to David Harris, to Liesl Tesch, to David Mehan and the broader NSW Government, because there's a golden opportunity. The Federal Government has already provided the dredge, so the massive cost of buying the dredge is already paid for by someone else through federal taxpayers. So effectively all they're asking the State Government to do is to pay for the operating costs for a few weeks’ campaign each year to really improve the situation. It's a golden opportunity and I'd certainly encourage them to seize it.
LEVI: And when it comes to beach renourishment, is that the two birds with one stone? Because that's the other problem at The Entrance channel. North Entrance is a terrible beach erosion hotspot, and previously Council had a dredge there that could pump sand to either side of the channel.
CONROY: Well we designed it to kill two birds with one stone in Lake Macquarie. Blacksmiths Beach is under huge erosion, it's losing lots of sand moving north and it's impacting safety at the beach and enjoyment of the beach, and previous dredging campaigns of Lake Macquarie just dumped the sand on an island called Elizabeth Island in the middle of the lake. Guess what? When there was a westerly wind, which happens a lot, the sand would just get blown back into the water. So we funded a permanent pipeline to move the sand across to Blacksmiths Beach. So that's something that Central Coast Council, if it decides to engage with the NSW Government, could easily talk to them about and perhaps put their own investment in to, as you said, kill two birds with one stone – clear clear a channel, help with coastal erosion, but also help build up beaches that's obviously been worn away over time. My parents are down at Ettalong and every time I go down there it's remarkable how much the foreshore is changing, how much the currents have changed.
LEVI: Exactly, this is really a two pronged thing, and Ettalong, The Entrance, Stockton, these places are very similar. The beach eroding there at Ocean Beach and sand being pumped onto that would save it. This is a scenario playing over and over again right along our section of coast. Mr. Conroy?
CONROY: Oh absolutely, and so many people choose to live in our area for the coastal lifestyle. My parents moved from Sydney when I was one year old for this. My dad commuted 30 years to Sydney so that his kids could enjoy a beach lifestyle. I know so many people who have done that and we just walked down the road. We weren't rich enough to live on the water, but we were close enough like a lot of people in the Central Coast to ride our bikes there, and we really need to make sure we can enjoy the beaches, enjoy the waterways that we have in front of us. And I think what we've started is a great example of the three levels of government working together. That's what Australians expect us to do. They don't care about political identities. They just want all three levels of government to work together to find solutions that improve people's lives.
LEVI: Any concerns about environmental impacts, positive or negative?
CONROY: Well I've had a couple of people raise it with me and it's really important that whenever these processes occur that you do those environmental studies and make sure that the impact is manageable. But people always have choices around how to manage these things in a sensitive way. But ultimately, I think most people would say we can look after the environment, but also look after our beaches and waterways, and that's what I think should happen.
LEVI: Mr. Conroy, thanks for joining us.
CONROY: Thanks. Have a great morning. Bye, bye.