Sutherland Shire community leaders have told NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam that they will continue their fight to oppose the development of Labor’s desalination plant at Kurnell, at a special meeting held in Miranda today. 

A residents action group will be formed to campaign against the plant in the run-up to the state election and demand answers from Labor about the project and the impact it will have on Shire residents.

“Sutherland Shire residents are frustrated that Labor have chosen to rush this project through on the eve of an election. Labor have ignored the local community and refused to answer important questions about the project and it’s impact on local lifestyle and the environment," Mr Debnam said.

“The community have been left in the dark and Labor is refusing or unable to answer their questions," he said.

"The questions the community want answered include:

• When will the tender documents be returned to the government?

• If Labor wins the election, when will the contract be signed, ie: how many months after the election?

• Does the $1.9 billion cost include all associated road works and tunnelling?

• Why has the cost blown out from the $1.3 billion first announced?

• What guarantees can Labor provide that the project will not become another infrastructure disaster like the Cross City Tunnel?

• When will the final route for tunnelling and associated works be made public?

• Will work start on the site before the election and what inconvenience will residents be exposed to?

• What affect will the desal plant have on marine life around Kurnell and surrounds?

• How will the plant be powered by green energy?

• What is the cost of a 500 million litre-a-day plant?

• What is the trigger for the 500 million litre plant?

• How is the desalination plant to be financed?

"Labor’s Morris Iemma and Barry Collier must come clean with the community today. The are entitled, and deserve answers to these questions," Mr Debnam said.

“If Labor wants to spend $1.9 billion of taxpayers funds to build a desalination plan that will provide less than 5 weeks of water, then they need to do better than Jack Thompson.

“Labor is seeking to promote the desalination plant at Kurnell as a silver bullet to Sydney’s water crisis. This is nonsense.

“Labor is attempting to create a community panic through the media to justify their own political panic on this issue.

“Labor has had 12 years to plan and act on Sydney’s water needs. Even their own experts have admitted today that if Labor had done the work on recycling we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.

“And now Labor are seeking to bully the community into a project and ignore their concerns less than seven weeks before an election where they can have their say.

"I re-iterated to the Shire community in the meeting today that a Debnam-led NSW Liberal/Nationals Government will not proceed with a desalination plant at Kurnell.

"The Shire is all about lifestyle. This plant will have a devastating impact on the local environment and residents are not prepared to see that put at risk to satisfy Labor’s political panic plans before an election.

“Shire residents should not be forced to pay for Labor’s failure to plan and act on Sydney’s water needs for the past 12 years, by fast tracking a desalination plant in the Shire, especially when the water will be pumped back across Botany Bay, and through Sydney streets for homes in the eastern and inner western suburbs.

“We need to focus on the priorities of recycling and storm water harvesting. There are no silver bullets, we need to tackle our water crisis house by house, town by town and region by region," Mr Debnam said.