p>While the country was watching the Farrer byelection over the weekend, Premier Minns and Water Minister Rose Jackson quietly pushed the Water Management Amendment (Easements for Inundation) Bill 2026 through the Legislative Council on 7 May, with no stakeholder consultation, no warning to the farmers it will hit, and no compensation written into the law for the damage it will cause.
What this Bill does, in plain English, is give Water NSW the power to flood private farms whenever it wants, without ever having to ask the owner for permission. The person who owns the land now has less control over their own property than a bureaucrat sitting in an office in Sydney. That is the end of private property in rural Australia.
If a Premier decided he could flood your suburban house any time he liked and never have to ask permission or pay you a cent for the damage, every street in this country would be in revolt. That is exactly what this Government is doing to us in the bush, and they are doing it while the cameras are pointed somewhere else.
We don’t live in Russia or China, we live in Australia, where governments are meant to act decently and fairly, and where private property is meant to mean something. If Labor gets away with taking control of our farms, no one’s home is safe.