When six Nationals ministers unveiled their 2023-2025 'Our Vision' plan in Dubbo on November 29, the topic of climate was a notable absence among the "four pillars".
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Healthcare, education, communities and places and regional housing were all spoken about at length during the hour-long presentation for residents and dignitaries from around the region.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW Paul Toole and Minister for Emergency Services Steph Cooke were asked by the ACM how the vision would better prepare the region for climate extremes.
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Ms Cooke was focused on protecting people in the initial instance, but went on to talk about flood recovery and rebuilding rather than preventive measures.
"The important focus as emergency services minister in my portfolio is to insure that we protect life and livelihoods in the initial instance and we will continue to do that," she told ACM.
"We are still day 76 of this current flooding event so it's important that we keep our eye on the ball and we get our communities through the current challenges that their facing and into that recovery phase."
Stating communities Eugowra, Forbes, Condobolin and Euabalong among others were moving into the early recovery phase, she said the 'Our Vision' plan would "stand alongside" it to transition from recovery phase to long-term rebuilding.
"[The vision] will [ensure] that our communities are supported all the way through and we come out of disasters like we've experienced this year, stronger better and more prosperous than ever before," Ms Cooke said.
On the other hand, Mr Toole spoke of better planning. He supported stringent rules about stopping houses being built on flood plains, raising culverts to avoid flooding and building bridges to withstand bushfires.
The deputy premier also said the state government had provided more than $4 billion in natural disaster support this year for individuals, families, communities, businesses, primary producers and rural land holders.
"The first thing is we got to get better with the planning system and planning rules around no houses around flood plains," Mr Toole said.
"We've also got to build back better, you can't just build back the same.
"In some areas we're seeing the culvert being cut off but the road's not cut off so let's look at raising the culvert in the future. It might just be raising it a couple of metres to ensure water can still travel under it but people can get to and from work and get home again each and every day.
"If you've got a timber bridge that's been destroyed, you can't just build another timber bridge because if the next fire comes along, it's going to take out that bridge. So we have to change that structure, so we might have a concrete structure be built in that area."
Mr Toole also supported raising the Wyangala dam wall and assisting his Bathurst local council with water infrastructure projects.
In an interview with ACM, professor of hydrology at the University of New South Wales school of environmental engineering, Dr Ashish Sharma said there needed to be a two-pronged approach to preparing for climate extremes.
While the expert believed the short-term solutions included updating infrastructure, long-term measures needed to acknowledge increasing temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions and take steps to reduce them.
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