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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Michael McGowan

‘Stark raving, barking mad’: experts question the building of homes below ‘worst-case’ flood levels in western Sydney

Flood Stuart Ayres Sydney Jamie Pittock Andrew Hall Dominic Perrottet New South Wales Boral
The Penrith Lakes property development site after the 2021 NSW floods
The Penrith Lakes property development site after the 2021 NSW floods. Photograph: David Fanner/The Guardian

In 2015, Stuart Ayres, the MP for Penrith in Sydney’s west, stood at the site of an old quarry in his electorate and told a journalist to imagine homes “as far as your eye can see”.

“There are so many opportunities we can explore,” he told Channel Nine.

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