Transcript - Radio 2CC Canberra, Breakfast with Stephen Cenatiempo

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO [HOST]: As you've been hearing in the news for the last week or so, residents of Yass and surrounding areas have been told not to drink tap water and to sponge bath their children as the local council works to fix a problem with its treatment processing plant. Because of rain, residents of Yass, Murrumbateman, Bowning have found their water unsafe to drink. They've had to boil water and it's costing local businesses an absolute fortune in bottled water. But what is the solution for this? It seems to be a problem that spans all three levels of government, and therefore, when all three levels of government get involved, nobody actually takes responsibility for it. Wendy Tuckerman, the state Member for Goulburn, has issued a statement basically throwing it back onto the federal government, which I've got to say, I don't understand. So, I thought we'd go to the Minister for Regional Development, Territories and Local Government, and Member for Eden-Monaro, which is the federal seat involved, Kristy McBain good morning.

KRISTY MCBAIN [MINISTER]: Morning, Stephen.

CENATIEMPO: Has this got anything to do with the federal government?

MCBAIN: There is obviously a water fund in the federal government and it's important that we do have collaboration between the levels of government, and it's a credit to the Minns’ Labor Government to finally commit $13.5 million for the start of the upgrades. I've triple checked and I can't see that the Yass Valley Council has applied to the National Water Grid Fund, but I'll continue to work with them. I've got a meeting with the General Manager this morning to go through his understanding so we can track this down, because it's situation in 2024 that shouldn't happen. I've seen photos of this drinking water and it's just not good enough.

CENATIEMPO: Because the $13.6 million from the government apparently is not enough to actually fix this problem. But this has been ongoing for years now.

MCBAIN: That's my understanding too and we've been contacted by many locals. It was one of the first things that people were telling me in 2020. After I got elected at a mobile office I did in Murrumbateman, they said this situation had been going on for many years and they just wanted a situation where they could bath their kids and wash their clothes without having to worry about the quality of the water.

CENATIEMPO: On a broader level, as the Minister for Local Government and somebody that's been in local government yourself, and I don't mean this as a put down. But local government is the most amateur level of government by its very nature. Why are we putting water in charge of local government and not state and federal governments in the first place?

MCBAIN: You've got some dedicated councillors from the community who are raising these issues with the organisations themselves. In other jurisdictions, water and sewer don't come under the authority of local councils and where I am at the moment in metropolitan Sydney, there's a whole different authority that handles water and sewer. Our city councils don't even have to do it. It's just our rural and regional councils, and that puts obviously additional pressure on ratepayers because the costs of managing those water and sewer treatment plants are high.

CENATIEMPO: But even beyond that, though, the capacity, and you're right, in Sydney you've got what used to be called the water borders. Now, Sydney water looks after water. It's a very large, professional organisation. Councils just don't have the capacity for this kind of thing, do they?

MCBAIN: It's also really hard to attract the workers to maintain our plants as well. The Australian Local Government Association have put out a paper only last year about the capacity that hits local councils when you've got demands for those jobs in state government, in mining operations, for a whole bunch of different agencies where perhaps the pay discrepancy is pretty high. Attracting and retaining staff in local councils is difficult.

CENATIEMPO: I want to go back to this federal grant that you're talking about. So, if indeed there was an application, is that enough to actually get this thing finalised?

MCBAIN: Yass Valley Council have done their due diligence on the water treatment they'll need, and it's been then checked by the NSW Office of Water. I had a meeting with both Yass Valley Council and the Office of Water last year about water treatment to understand what the end ask would be, and whether this would complete the project. My understanding is it would. Again, it's important to get to the bottom of it because as far as I can see, there's been no application from the NSW Government to the Water Grid Fund.

CENATIEMPO: So, that has to come from the state government, not from the council itself.

MCBAIN: That's right. Council prepares the application, it goes to the state government and then onto the federal government. Again, I can see the collective eye roll of so many residents across Yass Valley because the bureaucracy can hold up what they want to see. What they want to see at the moment is clean drinking water for their families.

CENATIEMPO: Well, yeah, they don't want to be able to see their water, and at the moment they can. That's the problem. All right, Kristy, thank you for your time. We'll follow this up with you and see where it ends up. But this has been going on far too long. But I do appreciate your time this morning.

MCBAIN: Good to be with you, Stephen.