Floods, fire inspire campaign promises

The Liberal party has promised $400,000 to Camden Council to aid clean-up efforts along the Hawkesbury-Nepean River following the devastating flooding events of the last couple of months, while Labor has pledged $500,000 to develop a community-led plan to manage water to reduce overflow in Camden and fire risk in Wollondilly and the Southern Highlands.

Incumbent Hume MP Angus Taylor said a reelected Morrison government would support clean-up and restoration along the river.

"After the damage caused by the recent flood events, this investment will deliver action on the ground," he said.

"This funding is for targeted recovery projects and will assist Camden Council with the river clean-up, recovery, waste management, and riverbank restoration.

"This is all about investing in the riverfronts where our local community lives, works, and plays and ensuring we continue to protect our local river system."

Mr Taylor noted the government had committed more than $6 billion to protect the environment across Australia since 2019, including native species recovery, habitat restoration, marine conservation, the National Landcare Program, environmental science, recycling and partnerships with community groups and traditional owners.

Meanwhile, Labor says it would improve disaster readiness in the region with a disaster management plan for Camden and Wollondilly.

They say the plan would be a 'critical piece of infrastructure to futureproof the region against the impacts of devastating natural disasters'.

Hume candidate Greg Baines said the plan would be driven by community knowledge.

"Travelling around the electorate during the campaign it was interesting to hear local knowledge because I think sometimes local knowledge gets lost from government," he said.

"Local govenrment is so busy and there are lots of issues facing them. Federal and state government can be a bit remote and dealing with bigger things, so we thought we needed to fine-tune some of our policy to tap into that local know-how.

"There might be a small project near your land, for example in Wollondilly the undergrowth might be a concern, and you know that's going to be a problem in summer. You can apply for some coal-burning of that particular area. Or you might live on a particular road and seen what weather does to that over the years and you know the best way to protect that is to do XYZ."

Mr Baines said the program would act as something of a trial in the Hume area, and if successful could be rolled out into other areas.

He anticipates the plan would be active within the first year of government if Labor is to be successful at the election.

Mr Baines said "future-proofing" regions against disasters was the best way to manage things.

"Insurance companies have been crying out for mitigation to bring their premiums down," he said.

"There have been various hikes in our insurance and the insurance industry has said number one thing we can do is mitigate against these disasters and community know-how is a great way to do that."

Mr Baines said introducing new infrastructure was important, but government also needed to protect existing infrastructure.

Labor said the management plan would be funded through their Disaster Ready Fund, which would 'revamp the Morrison Government's failed Emergency Response Fund' and invest up to $200 million per year on disaster prevention and resilience.