Labor may not honour Nationals funding deal on Dungowan Dam

Senator Tim Ayres travelled to the region on Wednesday to launch the campaign of the party's candidate Laura Hughes, at an event at the Family Hotel.

Mr Ayres was born in Glen Innes and serves as the party's duty senator for the New England electorate.

The NSW senator refused to commit the party to spend the $675 million Mr Joyce has committed to spend on the city's new Dungowan Dam.

He claimed the National commitment was a false one anyway.

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"When Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott campaigned in the 2013 election, they promised to build 100 dams," he said.

"They haven't built any of those dams.

"If Barnaby Joyce had built all of the dams that he'd promised to build, the sea level would be lower. He says one thing before an election and does another thing later."

Shadow minister for water Terri Butler said Labor would "consider the project on its merits."

"Federal Labor has not seen the business case. We look forward to seeing it. Labor will consider the project on its merits," she said.

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Tamworth mayor Russell Webb said there had been "mixed messages" from Labor, and the party hadn't given any assurances about funding the scheme.

It's still premature for lobbying but if the party is elected government, Tamworth Regional Council will immediately start conversations about the scheme, he said.

"It is quite possible that if the new government is elected and they reconsider the project [that they would] look at it in a different light," he said.

"I certainly hope that won't happen because, if they do, that doesn't fix the water security for Tamworth."

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Deputy prime minister and New England MP Barnaby Joyce committed the federal government to spend $675 million on the new dam scheme. The NSW state government is slated to spend $600 million and build the project.

Mr Joyce has repeatedly warned that a Labor government could pull out of the project, leaving the plan to replace Tamworth's existing decades-old crumbling Dungowan Dam with a bigger, new one, stranded.

The "fast-tracked" project was announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and then-Premier Gladys Berejiklian in October 2019.

Senator Ayres spent much of Wednesday driving around the Dungowan valley area. He said Labor understood it hadn't been long since the region was on the precipice of running out of water and the problem needed a solution.

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"There has to be a thoughtful and permanent approach to resolving water security issues for towns in regional NSW, and of course all of the challenges in water security more broadly against the backdrop of climate change, which is the biggest threat to water security in our history, he said.

"While the dams are full now, we're going to face these challenges again. It's a national problem, it requires national solutions."

Senator Ayres said Ms Hughes was a good candidate to take on incumbent member for New England, deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.

"A better choice than Joyce is a pretty low bar to get over frankly," he said

"I think what Laura offers is decency and integrity and consistency."

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