Mrs SALLY QUINNELL (Camden) (17:36): On 10 May I held a round table to discuss the Camden emergency resilience efforts in Camden and surrounding areas to deal with the increasing threat of natural disasters, as well as broader emergency management in the region. All across New South Wales climate change is contributing to more extreme weather events such as floods and fires, and Camden is certainly not immune. Like many other areas, since 2022 Camden has experienced significant flooding, which has threatened homes and businesses, and closed roads, schools and bridges. We have only just opened a flood level display as part of the Nepean art trail, which demonstrates the incredible levels those floods got to.

The aim of the Camden emergency resilience round table was to bring together members of the community and key stakeholders to start conversations around a coordinated emergency response that serves the best interests of our community during a natural disaster or emergency. The focus was not on saving lives as the community already does that exceedingly well, having lost two lives in the last four floods. It was about the resilience of our town in being able to bounce back, which involves saving our precious things, like photos. Many stakeholders attended and the feedback given was incredible.

Our special guest was the hardworking Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Recovery and, importantly for this round table, member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin. The Parliamentary Secretary brought a unique knowledge of the possible damage that high flood levels can inflict. I also thank the member for Wollondilly, who attended and offered many thoughts regarding the impact of flooding on the entire region. The focus of the round table was to reflect on the floods of 2021-22 and to discuss the ways in which we as a township can improve. We also looked towards the possible disastrous flood levels and what that would mean for our community. We started with a general discussion of the perceived holes in the services provided. The main discussions centred around the lack of adequate community knowledge of how Camden floods—which direction the water moves in and what the flood levee levels mean.

We discussed the single way in and out of the township during an emergency when the bridges are closed, as well as the warning times from the Bureau of Meteorology and coordination between organisations. We also discussed the fact that members of the community do not like evacuating their homes without their pets and how that issue could be rectified. We had quite a concerning discussion with WIRES about the fact that when our town floods, all the snakes move to the drier areas in Camden.

One of the main talking points, however, was the incredible number of enthusiastic volunteers in Camden and how to best use their enthusiasm. We then broke into small groups, and each group was instructed to come up with solutions for all of those problems if possible. The small groups presented to the room at the conclusion, and many solutions came to mind. I will continue to talk about those solutions over the next couple of weeks, months and possibly years. It was noted that the group should continue to meet every 12 months to discuss the issues further.

I thank all of the stakeholders who attended the emergency resilience roundtable for the manner with which they approached the discussions. It was incredibly heart-filling to gather 40 people in a room whose only idea was to help the people of the township of Camden in an emergency, and everyone left the room very excited about our future together. I also thank those groups that are not usually included in such discussions, such as the chamber of commerce, the Environment Protection Authority, WIRES and a couple of other groups that I will not name at this time. I also thank my colleagues and friends the members for Wollondilly and Lismore for coming along and sharing their expertise, knowledge and ideas. Together we can work towards bouncing back from natural disasters more quickly, and I look forward to advocating for those issues in the future.