Flood inaction costs Hawkesbury millions. In March 2024, the Director of Planning presented the Hawkesbury town and villages Place Plans Report to direct future funding for disaster management.

The report failed to provide any information on disaster management, the locations of existing disaster infrastructure, nor any proposed services for future events. It did, however, contain a range of bizarre planning proposals including the placement of five pedestrian crossings in a small village CBD, the imposition of village squares on private property in some locations and the provision of bicycle tracts and pop-up cafes in each location.

The report also claimed to incorporate eleven pieces of feedback received from the public exhibition process. This was a blatantly false claim. In fact, the draft report placed on exhibition and the final report presented to Council were identical and no feedback was incorporated.

Lies and misdirection in planning report aimed to direct future State and Federal disaster funding

Flood inaction costs Hawkesbury millions

During the 2021 floods, a simple flange fractured between two sewage pipes transporting effluent to the Hawkesbury Council treatment plant. The repair was delayed for over a year and a half while Council tried to get the State Government to fund the repair. During this time, Council contracted out the transport of waste from the broken pipeline to the treatment facility.

In 2023, it was revealed that the cost of transporting waste from the broken pipeline to the treatment facility had totalled more than $36 million – a third of the Council budget. After much public pressure from local farmers who stated they could fix the pipe in half a day, a flange was purchased and the pipe was fixed. The mishandling was highlighted when the NSW state Government refused to fund the repair and Hawkesbury Council had to take out a loan for $40 million.

Community policing inflates repair bills and harms local agricultural business

The banks of the Hawkesbury River at Cornwallis, Windsor were seriously eroded during the 2021 floods. Ultimately, the river bank collapsed due to a failed storm water drain that Council did not properly maintain. Local landowners, who saw their properties being washed away, swung into action and began shoring up the collapsed bank only to be delivered a stop work order by Council who claimed the responsibility for the works belonged solely to the Council. The urgent restoration work, still yet to commence, is estimated at $40 million, and with three additional floods occurring in the interim, this number is due to rise while Council awaits NSW Government funding.

These are just two examples of Hawkesbury Council’s disastrous approach to disaster management – many more can be provided.