IN an article appearing on page four of The Northern Daily Leader on Saturday, May 3, the Member for Tamworth was quoted as saying: “A simple telephone call to the Minister’s office revealed that they and the Department have received no representations regarding Chaffey Dam from Mr Stoner or any of his National Party Colleagues over the past two years.”

Mr Draper is just plain wrong on this point.

In January I wrote a series of letters to, among others, Premier Iemma, the Minister for Water, Nathan Rees, and the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. I received acknowledgements from the offices of both the Premier and the Minister, Nathan Rees, in February of this year.

These letters called on the Federal Government to honour its commitment to contribute funding to the upgrade of Chaffey Dam.

I have to wonder why Mr Draper chooses to attack the Nationals instead of joining with us to pressure both the State and Federal Governments on this vital piece of infrastructure.

In discussions held on Friday, May 2 with the mayor, James Treloar, and with representatives of the Tamworth Regional Chamber of Commerce, the issue of water security for Tamworth, and the upgrade of Chaffey Dam, were points that were strongly made to the meeting of Nationals members.

Sadly on this occasion not only has Peter Draper descended into negative political point scoring, but has also shot himself in the foot in the process.

Trevor Khan

TAMWORTH