Protecting the Macquarie Marshes and fixing Dubbo's drinking water are on the agenda for shadow minister Rose Jackson

"I'm based in Sydney and you hear a lot about these places - and sometimes you have representatives from these communities participating in specific inquiries - but we don't get out to them very regularly," Labor's Rose Jackson, a member of the NSW upper house and shadow water minister, told the Daily Liberal.

"You hear about the wetlands, about the bird colonies and the vegetation. But nothing really beats actually getting out there and seeing it in-person."

"That's why I came out there - so I have an on-the-ground understanding of what that ecosystem was like."

As well as seeing the wetland, the visit was an opportunity for Ms Jackson, to speak with key stakeholders in Dubbo about the drinking water issues which have been plaguing the town for the past year.

"Protecting the environment is important and so is supporting agricultural industries - but towns need clean drinking water. And I think that has been one of the more serious failings of this government," she said.

"While I'm here in Dubbo I'm speaking to people about that - it's not acceptable to me. We need to get serious about making sure regional communities always have clean drinking water just like Sydney, and there just has not been the investment to make that happen."

"I cannot believe that the drinking water infrastructure has been so neglected, and we're going to be looking to get really serious about that."

On her visit to the Macquarie Marshes Ms Jackson was joined by representatives of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.

The expansive 23,141-hectare wetlands provides a breeding ground for water birds and is the largest remaining inland semi-permanent wetlands in south-eastern Australia.

Ms Jackson said visiting the wetlands and speaking to local landholders in the area affirmed the importance of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan - a federal government water management initiative which passed into law in November 2012.

"The thing we talked about in terms of policy setting was making sure we're implementing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Places like the Macquarie Marshes rely on the sustainable extraction of water across the system," she said.

"If too much is taken upstream they aren't able to get enough water to support their ecosystem - so we talked about how we can ensure that plan, which has been developed to protect places like the Ramsar-listed Macquarie Marshes."

"Labor wants to do everything we can to see our obligations under the plan fulfilled."

Another priority for Labor - should they be elected in the upcoming state election - will be improving flood mitigation measures in the state's central west.

"I think there has not been enough investment in flood-mitigation in this region. That is another area we would want to prioritise, I think the last few years and recent flooding events caught us underprepared," she said.

Before leaving Dubbo, Ms Jackson will be meeting with local representatives, councillors and Dubbo's Labor candidate Joshua Back to discuss her other portfolio - housing and homelessness.

"You just cannot get the same picture, feedback and experiences sitting in an office in Sydney. You have to make time to get out and see communities where they are and talk to them on the ground," she said.

"While I'm here I'll be having a round-table discussion with about 10 or 15 different housing and homelessness groups about issues of housing and homelessness in the area."

"That's a really important conversation as well and I'm really looking forward to that."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: