NSW Labor's proposal to build a dam in the Tillegra Valley will be a waste of $300 million, according to local residents who picketed the offices of Hunter Water in Newcastle on May 16.
"It's not needed", local Greens councilor Michael Osborne, told Green Left Weekly. Estimates put population growth at 95,000, not the 160,000 used by the government to justify building the dam. One of the real reasons for its construction is that NSW Labor's developer mates will benefit from land re-zoning if the dam goes ahead, Osborne added.