NSW Farmers demand investigation into recent flooding events

NSW Farmers is calling for a comprehensive, ongoing review of recent flooding events to better understand and prevent future threats.

"Throughout the two wet years of '21 and '22, multiple flood events showed that floodwater was going places it hadn't previously gone for more than a century. Dry lands were suddenly underwater," President of NSW Farmers Xavier Martin said.

"NSW Farmers are calling for an independent, comprehensive, and ongoing review of the evidence from these flood events to determine what flood works, public or private, approved or unapproved, contributed to what occured," Mr Martin said.

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The agricultural advocacy group said levees, roadways or other structures built in recent years have likely altered the movement of floodwater, threatening the lives of those residing downstream.

"It's like they've all been planned in isolation to each other, and the cumulative impact has been poorly understood," Mr Martin said.

NSW Farmers wants the review to consider how flooding has changed across the state, especially in the wake of last year's devastation at Lismore in the Northern Rivers and Gunnedah in the Namoi Valley.

"This is happening from the Queensland border right down to the Murray near Victoria," Mr Martin said.

Mr Martin has the support of his hometown's mayor Jamie Chaffey, who called for a similar review for the shire after Gunnedah was inundated with floods last year.

"The feedback I got was to wait until the next round of funding becomes available ... and the new Minns government currently has all funding streams under review, and we haven't been given a timeline to know what streams will survive and when we can apply," Cr Chaffey said.

Similar commissions have cost tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, but Cr Chaffey said the review could save not only hundreds of millions in property damage, but also an untold number of lives.

"If there was a way to identify risk and be able to mitigate it to be in a better position for flooding events, then that's just good government making decisions to support the people," he said.

Mr Martin also says the review will pay dividends.

"The flooding events we've just lived through have cost $5 billion in direct costs, and that's money out of everyone's pockets, whether as an individual with damaged assets or a taxpayer who's had public works damaged. It's way smarter to use the opportunity to learn from the evidence from those events," he said.

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