On the banks of the Darling River near Menindee, Environment and Acting Water Minister Penny Sharpe has confirmed the new New South Wales Labor government's commitment to an independent review into mass fish deaths and water management in the state.
Today Ms Sharpe accompanied Premier Chris Minns and MP Rose Jackson to the site where tens of millions of native fish suffocated to death less than two weeks ago.
Mr Minns said it was important to understand how locals had been impacted by the crisis, which was caused by a lack of oxygen in the water, and ensure they got immediate support.
"We know events like this can be devastating … particularly when you consider the roller-coaster over the last four years, going from extreme drought to an abundance of water," he said.
"This is the second major fish kill or ecological event that we've seen in the last five years.
"Our job today is to listen and learn, understand the effect on the local community, appreciate what the emergency response has been, and also to ensure that government action and policy changes are put in place by this incoming government so that events like this are not a regular occurrence."
Ms Sharpe, who is looking after the water portfolio until it is officially assigned, offered her sympathy to the Menindee community and committed her support.
"The challenge for us is, how do we prevent this into the future and how do we deal with it right now?" she said.
"I think understanding and learning from this experience is very important, but also the community knowing that we will listen to the scientists, and we'll listen to the experts, but we'll also listen to them.
"There's a lot of local knowledge here."
Independent investigation on the way
Ms Sharpe also confirmed the new government had heard residents' calls for an independent investigation into the fish deaths.
"We committed during the campaign that would look at an independent review, we'll look at who needs to do that and in what place, but probably looking at the chief scientist," she said.
"We need to understand what's happened, but I'm interested in also making sure that we have local knowledge that is fed into that process."
Mr Minns agreed that the incoming government needed to look at water management throughout regional NSW.
But he said regardless of the outcome of any investigation, he was more focused on getting future policies right rather than holding people to account for previous decisions.
"This is a town that we want to see growing and thriving, both with tourism and agriculture," Mr Minns said.
"We know in many ways, it's a marvel of the world.
"But we need to make sure that we protect its waterways, particularly when there's an abundance of water.
"If there [have] been policy mistakes, we [need to] prevent them in the future, because we don't want to see repeated disasters like this, repeated fish kills that hit the ecology of the local community and also have a massive impact on the local economy."
