The right way to go
Letter to Dungog Chronicle – 14 August 2008
I was extremely disappointed to read the Dungog Chronicle’s manager’s article of 13 August.
It would seem we are being encouraged to roll over now before we know if the dam is going to even reach its first stage in the very long assessment process. We have seen nothing from the proponent, Hunter Water, which could convince anyone this dam is needed, let alone be built without a cost to us all, in monetary and social terms and the lost environment, for all our future generations.
We have heard a lot of spin and hype from the proponent and its master, but nothing has been substantiated. We are told the official line ‘it will be included in the EIA’. But we have been waiting almost 2 years and still we wait. In the meantime the Dungog Chronicle tries to tell us to give in now and go for best outcomes. But no one has defined “Best Outcomes”. This term gets thrown around by members of our Council and TDCRG like confetti, without definition. What might be the Chronicle’s view of ‘best outcomes’ may not be those shared by the residents downstream or those above the proposed dam site.
So let’s get it right.
Do not roll over just because the Dungog Chronicle or anyone else for that matter says we should. Now is the time to unite against the dam. Take a leaf out of the books of other fights which have proved Government policy wrong. Where would we be now if Franklin River, Daintree, Work Choices, mining in Kakadu, Aboriginal land rights etc had not been challenged and the fights won. Or do we all sit back and let this dictatorial State Government continue to run amuck and ruin our beautiful Williams Valley without justification – except to say “it was an election commitment” but to whom? The people of the Central Coast say they do not need it. The people of the Hunter do not need it and were not aware they were getting it. But they will be the ones paying for it for a very long time!
Warwick Thomas
Salisbury