CENTRE Alliance candidate for Grey Andrea Broadfoot has promised to support the region’s proposed Northern Floodway Project if she wins the seat following Saturday’s federal election, while Liberal incumbent Rowan Ramsey is yet to be briefed on the topic.
The $27 million project, pitched by the Gawler River Flood Management Authority (GRFMA) to mitigate the effects of once-in-a-decade flooding, has been a sticking point for Adelaide Plains Council (APC) and its ratepayers since its inception.
APC once threatened to walk away from the GRFMA – which is a partnership between all other local councils in the area – over fears it was receiving no value for money from the Authority, and that landowners around the Gawler River would be affected by inlets and damns set to be created by the Northern Floodway.
Ms Broadfoot met with GRFMA chair Ian Baldwin and chief executive David Hitchcock last week to discuss the project, which she called the most “immediate and cost-effective option” to prevent flood damage around the river.
“Flood mitigation works are needed in the lower stretches of the Gawler River to significantly reduce flooding of property, road closures and damage to infrastructure,” she said.
“The GRFMA has developed a sensible and cost-effective proposal that will have an immediate impact on protecting local residents and their crops from flooding in the event of the Gawler River breaking its banks.
“This has the potential to be a significant employment project, including aboriginal people in Caring for Country, and I would love to encourage partnerships with programs like Indigenous Rangers, disability employment and employment service providers so that local people can be part of this exciting project.”
All six member councils of the GRFMA – Adelaide Plains, Gawler, Light Regional, Barossa, Playford, and Adelaide Hills – had previously rejected a funding proposition from the State Government
that would have seen a $10 million federal grant bettered by a $14 million state grant.
The funding proposal would have left $3 million to be paid by the member councils, which still want the entire project to be state and federally funded.
The 2018 electoral boundaries redistribution brought the Gawler River into Mr Ramsey’s electorate of Grey for the first time, after it previously flowed through the former seat of Wakefield, which has been renamed Spence.
Mr Ramsey said he had yet to meet with the GRFMA regarding the project.
“I have not been briefed on this project as yet, so am not in any position to guarantee funds,” he said.
“This, like any major project, has to go through the correct processes to seek Federal Government funding.
“It’s very easy for independent candidates to make promises, they will not be the party of Government.”