THIS is the secret memo that Greens MP John Kaye says goes to the heart of the Tillegra Dam debate.
The State Government caved in yesterday to mounting pressure to release the previously privileged memo written six weeks before the controversial project was announced in November 2006.
Among those urging the document's release was retired judge Sir Laurence Street, who ruled that it was in the public interest to release it.
A further 28 documents relating to the Tillegra project are still classified as privileged.
Hunter Water managing director Kevin Young wrote the nine-page memo on September 28, 2006, in response to a request from the then water minister David Campbell's office for information about major water resource and recycling projects under consideration in the Hunter.
It lists Tillegra Dam as being among four projects "worthy of consideration".
The document shows that at the time the Tillegra project had "not been robustly quantified, but is likely to be in the order of $250 million".
The latest state budget papers show the dam's cost at $477 million. The figure does not include $71 million that will be recouped from the sale of surplus land once the dam is built.
Significantly, the memo also highlights the dam as an attractive option to supply water to the Central Coast.
The project was officially announced on November 13, less than a week after former Aboriginal affairs minister Milton Orkopoulos was charged with a raft of child sex and drug offences.
Dr Kaye said yesterday the document proved Tillegra Dam was a politically motivated project which lacked proper planning.
"There is a remarkable and damning absence of a planning document, study or other analysis indicating the superiority of Tillegra in any of the bundles produced under the call for papers," he said.
"No preference is identified for Tillegra. In fact, only one, bigger pump at Balickera Pumping Station, is under 'active' consideration."
The Government has denied the dam was rushed to counter the Orkopoulos scandal.
Mr Young said planning for the dam, which was first considered in the 1950s, began in earnest after a review in 2004 of the likely impact of climate change.
"The memo needs to be taken in the context of the work that preceded it and all the work that came after it," Mr Young said.
"We did a major strategy session in May 2005 looking at the options and pointed out that Tillegra was the best solution."
In closing the memo, Mr Young suggested holding off any announcement of individual projects until federal funding was available or there was a "broader vision" produced on drought security across regions.
Mr Young said yesterday that the paragraph was designed to maximise the opportunity to attract federal funds.
"That [federal funding] was not available," he said.
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