Wednesday, 13 November 2024

Bills

Statute Law Repeals Bill 2024

Second reading

Debate resumed.

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (14:52): From time to time the government needs to deal with bills that are much briefer and lighter than most others, and today we have the Statute Law Repeals Bill 2024, which is another bill around tidying things up, specifically around repealing redundant or spent provisions in quite a number of acts. Despite there being a number of acts that are included in this, I am going to keep my comments to two of the seven, being the Road Safety Act 1986 and the Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017. Both have parts that are being repealed.

I want to begin with the Road Safety Act and talk about some of the conditions of the roads and the impacts that is having on people’s safety right across the state but certainly across my electorate. I am contacted frequently about endless problems with roads that have fallen into a state of disrepair – about potholes the size of Mini Minors, failing surfaces, popped tyres and busted rims. I hear not just from constituents but from people who travel through my electorate and have experienced all sorts of problems. Sometimes they are accompanied by videos or photos of the damage that has occurred to their cars.

When you speak to the local tyre repairers, you find the true extent of the problems with our road network and the safety that is compromised because of it. If you have got a large pothole and somebody comes around a corner when it is wet or if it is dark and they do not see it and hit it, depending on the size of that vehicle and the type of vehicle it is very easy for that to spin out of control and cause an accident. For motorcyclists, it is even worse because they have less protection not being in a vehicle, and if they hit potholes and flip, it can have some very devastating outcomes.

There is an area on the Healesville-Yarra Glen Road where people complained of a dip and cars became airborne. There was a lot of media attention given to this – I think it was on 3AW – and following that media it was only then that that section of road got repaired. The Whittlesea-Yea Road is just getting more and more potholes in it. The Kangaroo Ground-St Andrews Road, which has been in an appalling state, just a couple of days ago had work commence on it, so we have had one week’s worth of work between Wattle Glen Road and Couties Road.

I want to turn for a moment to the Melba Highway, which has been a constant source of grief for many travelling in my electorate – constituents, holiday-makers or truck drivers delivering freight over to Benalla and on to the Hume. For years there has been a 40 kilometre-per-hour sign on this 100 kilometre-an-hour freeway in different spots, but one in particular has been at the corner of Nashs Road. I know that corner very well. For a while it was not signposted that it was dangerous, then it became 40 kilometres an hour. After that the sign went up, and then they did a little bit of a fix but not a complete fix. So we still have this 40 kilometre-an-hour sign there, and people are fed up with it and want to know what is going to happen and when it is finally going to be fixed. I know that it is unsafe because occasionally you see cars that are pulled over and left while someone has to go and seek another means of getting to where they are going so their car can be collected later on.

On the Mansfield-Woods Point Road we have had a traffic light in place at the Howqua Hills for 10 months while the government work out what they are going to do. They have had all this time to try and work it out. The experts are getting together apparently on what is going to be the best long-term solution, but in the meantime locals and tourists – again, it is a very popular tourism spot and particularly coming up to Christmas will be more so – want to know what is happening. But there is a speed limit at Howqua Inlet. It is 100 kilometres an hour, and there is a section that is 80 kilometres per hour. I understand that locals and the council have been seeking an extension of that speed zone for 1.2 kilometres, and I understand that Department of Transport and Planning have approved the new signage and the extension. All it takes is new signs and for those new signs to be stuck in the ground, but apparently they have got to wait for funding. I would have thought that this would be a bit of a no-brainer and an easy, quick win for the government, because it is not a high cost and it is fairly simple.

At that spot at Howqua Inlet the limit drops from 100 kilometres an hour to 80  and then increases back to 100 before you reach the Howqua Valley Holiday Park. This is important because this is an important tourist destination. We would like to have the 80 kilometre-an-hour speed limit continue past that caravan park up to the Howqua Point Road so it is safe, and it would be great if this was done before Christmas because there are safety factors here. I know that all of the visitors to that holiday park would be very appreciative of that. There is also a trail that is being developed from Howqua Inlet to the Howqua Valley Holiday Park. It will be on the road shoulder, but it would just be so much better should that stretch of road be fixed.

I also want to mention the Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017. The Yarra River is of great importance to Melbourne and to Victoria. Strangely, though, if you look at the government website, you would think that the Yarra River started at Warrandyte. In fact it starts a long way before that. It is some 242 kilometres, most of which is in my electorate as it weaves its way from Baw Baw and the Yarra Ranges National Park, goes past the Upper Yarra Reservoir, through the Upper Yarra and the Yarra Valley from Warburton to Launching Place, Woori Yallock, Healesville and the Bend of Islands. There are so many areas in my electorate that rely on the Yarra River, and it is important that it remains as healthy as it can be. This bill that has been introduced brings an overseer role I guess to the Parliament so that it is kept alive and healthy for future generations. The act also recognises the intrinsic connection from the traditional custodians in that area, who have used that as a water source but also as a recreational source for such a long time.

We have a number of caravan parks along that, and I want to mention Warburton Holiday Park and particularly owner David Pratt. The Victorian Caravan Parks Association have recognised him for his work within the caravan park sector and named after him the David Pratt Unsung Hero Award, which was awarded at their annual awards earlier this year. I know David and the amazing work that he and Simon have done at the caravan park in Warburton. It is really quite amazing.

The legislation also establishes the Birrarung Council, and the Birrarung Council is required to report to the government every year. Part 5, section 57 of the legislation says a report must be made on or before 31 October each year after a strategic plan has come into operation under section 38. So each year is this year, and the minister then must within seven sitting days after receiving the report have it tabled in Parliament. I would expect that the Birrarung Council have done their bit. I expect that they got their report to the government on time, but we have not seen this one yet. We have one more sitting week. Unless it is tabled tomorrow, we have one more sitting week for that report to be tabled. I would really like to actually have a look at that.

[NAME/S AWAITING VERIFICATION]

We have wonderful camping grounds at the Upper Yarra Dam and at Doon as well. We have got great reserves at the Maroondah Reservoir for people to enjoy. Warburton itself is such a beautiful spot, and if people have not visited it, I encourage them to do so. There is a wonderful and intensely popular swimming spot just behind the main street, but many, many favour tubes. I know for Heidi, Lola and Ivy, one of their favourite pastimes is getting in a tube, going downstream, jumping out, running back up and doing it again. Many, many children in the area take much joy in the river at Warburton, and I cannot stress the importance of the river being used not just environmentally but also recreationally, because I know that the traditional custodians use that too to recreate. Spadonis Reserve just out of Yarra Glen is quite a historical spot. There are billabongs, there is a reserve there and it is a great launch place for canoes, as is a spot in Launching Place as well. There are so many great things on the Yarra River, and I really would love to see the work and effort to maintain that river continue.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (15:02): I too rise as the last speaker from the government side, I potentially believe, to support the Statute Law Repeals Bill 2024. Of course since being elected to government in 2014, this Victorian Labor government has been one of the most active in Victoria’s history. Whether it is landmark legislation, investment or policy reforms to deliver real outcomes across jobs, education, transport, health and wellbeing, community sport, environmental and climate action, social justice reforms, housing reforms or cost-of-living relief, the fact is we have been proudly working every single day as the Victorian government to deliver on the things that people in Victoria need.

In terms of legislation introduced and passed, we have been a very busy government indeed, passing 43 bills in the last 12 months alone, and we have introduced 32 bills in 2024 alone. But as the amount of legislation grows of course so too does the necessity to ensure the statute book remains accurate. With our statute book dating back to 1856 with the building and opening of this very Parliament, it is essential we continually review and seek to modernise our laws to ensure they remain relevant for contemporary settings. This is a statute law repeal bill, which repeals bills as part of the Parliament’s regular housekeeping to ensure that legislation across the statute books, as I said, is accurate and clear and accessible to the public. There are a number of minor technical amendments that are made through this statute bill, including amendments to the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012, the Docklands Act 1991, the Filming Approval Act 2014, the Greenhouse Gas Geological Sequestration Act 2008, the Marine (Drug, Alcohol and Pollution Control) Act 1988, the Road Safety Act 1986 and of course the Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017.

It is the reforms to the Yarra River protection act that I would like to focus my attention on in my contribution today. The bill will repeal part 8 of the Yarra River protection act, which only contains one provision and inserts part 3AAA into the Planning and Environment Act 1987, dealing with the Yarra River land protection. With the single provision now in place or having commenced, it is now spent and no longer necessary. As I indicated in my inaugural speech, I am absolutely committed to doing everything I can to help protect and preserve our environment to secure sustainability outcomes and open space, particularly through our waterways and creeks in the inner city, for many years to come. As set out in our landmark Yarra River Action Plan, led by then Minister Richard Wynne, Lisa Neville and Minister D’Ambrosio of course, who is still here today, when it comes to the Yarra River, as stated within the plan:

We have rowed on it, drunk it, dammed it, washed in it, ignored it, sewered into it, gazed at it, drowned in it, swum it, built factories and cities because of it.

The Yarra River is Melbourne’s major river, and it has also been called many names in the past: to the Wurundjeri it is Birrarung; to the colonials it was everything from Freshwater to Batman’s, Yarrow Yarrow to the Yarra Yarra. And today we just call it of course the Yarra.

Whatever name you give our river, this much is certain: we definitely need it. It provides 70 per cent of our city’s drinking water and is also home to the largest container port in Australia. Beyond that, being such an important waterway for Melbourne, it is also an important waterway to many of the creeks and waterways through the north-western suburbs of Melbourne, including through my own electorate Moonee Ponds Creek, Merri Creek, Edgars Creek, Westbreen Creek and Merlynston Creek. The Moonee Ponds Creek goes into the Yarra at Ron Barassi Senior Park, just below CityLink and below the Bolte Bridge, with the Westbreen Creek being a tributary of the Moonee Ponds Creek. The Merri Creek goes into the Yarra just above Dights Falls, with both the Edgars and Merlynston creeks also being tributaries of the Merri Creek. That is why preserving and protecting the Yarra is so important, because if we protect the Yarra we also enhance our local creeks and waterways, as I said, through our local communities. The traditional owners of the land for at least 60,000 years, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people, proudly provided the custodianship originally through what we now recognise to be Merri-bek, including Moonee Ponds Creek and Merri Creek, and my electorate, which is really made up of the suburbs in between those two creeks.

To provide a bit of history and context on these creeks, I would like to just cite throughout my contribution some of the research from a former member for Pascoe Vale Kelvin Thomson, who spoke on the history of the Moonee Ponds Creek in particular at the Moonee Valley library on 19 September as part of a historical talk. The Moonee Ponds Creek meanders its way through Westmeadows, Tullamarine, Broadmeadows, Gowanbrae, Glenroy, Strathmore Heights, Strathmore Park, Pascoe Vale, Essendon, Brunswick West, Moonee Ponds, Ascot Vale, Flemington, Parkville and North Melbourne before joining the Yarra River, as I said, down in Docklands. The Port Phillip area was first settled by Europeans in 1835, and the first land sales in the area of Strathmore at Moonee Ponds Creek were made from 1843 and 1845 onwards. The origins of the creek have evolved of course over many years as development has taken place throughout the entire corridor in terms of housing and industrial and commercial space. That has had a big impact ecologically and sustainability-wise on the creek over many, many years.

In 1963 and 1966 the Moonee Ponds Creek flooded homes in Parker Street and Avoca Crescent in Pascoe Vale. The Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works, the predecessor to Melbourne Water, decided to address the increasing frequency and severity of flooding caused by urban development and loss of flood plain capacity by reconstructing the Moonee Ponds Creek as an urban drain instead to evacuate stormwater as quickly as possible, resulting in the concrete drain that we now have. In 1969 and 1970 the Victorian government then built the Tullamarine Freeway, now CityLink, from Flemington to the new Tullamarine airport. It largely did follow the valley of the Moonee Ponds Creek, this being the line of least resistance compared with buying up and demolishing many, many homes. As you drive, for those who may not be familiar with the area, onto CityLink towards the airport off Flemington Road, where that famous icon of Jeff’s is still lingering above, you will see the creek to your left as you drive up, and it is really that concrete drain of the 1970s down in that portion.

I pay tribute to Kelvin Thomson; his late father Allan Thomson, who was a true local pioneer of environmental activism throughout his many years; Kelvin’s brother Lex Thomson; and many others from across the community who during that time advocated so strongly to protect and preserve the Moonee Ponds Creek, and they still do to this very day, having prevented it from being entirely concreted all the way up, further up north, following quite a lot of advocacy at the time. After he became state member for Pascoe Vale in 1988, Kelvin went on to be the founder and established the Moonee Ponds Creek community group, which has very much since grown and evolved to become the vibrant group that it remains today.

And today as the current member for Pascoe Vale I am absolutely honoured to be building on these decades of local work to continue improving the Moonee Ponds Creek corridor. On 19 May 2023 the member for Broadmeadows and I planted the first of 43,000 plants as part of the sensational Reimagining Your Moonee Ponds Creek project. It is a $10.2 million project, which includes a $5 million contribution from the Victorian Labor government, which will transform around a 500-metre section of the concrete-lined creek between Strathmore and Oak Park and Pascoe Vale into a more natural and enjoyable public space. The project is due for completion later this year and will remove many of those concrete walls along both sides of the creek, which were originally poured way back in 1977, to be replaced with more natural and appealing rock work. It will cover the concrete base of the channel with rock work to create a meandering creek with low flows and give it a more natural look and feel. There will be the creation of new shared paths and a new bridge, the construction of a pond and terracing of the Oak Park Reserve. These renaturalisation works will result in a more appealing creek-side environment, where people can interact with nature in a cooler and healthier environment. It will provide improved water flows and waterway health by slowing water flows, improve biodiversity and habitat for native species outcomes and of course activate a lot of the open space as well.

On 24 September, just recently as well, it was great to have joined the Minister for Water, Minister Shing, from the other place to inspect works on this game-changing project. It was sensational to also celebrate a further $5 million contribution that is going to be now tipped in and added by the Albanese Labor government to continue stage 2 of this project all the way down to Lebanon Reserve further down into Strathmore and also of course to benefit many residents of my electorate.

It is also from a planning perspective that I am really pleased to report on further protections we have been introducing since 2022 when it comes to the Moonee Ponds Creek. Through the Waterways of the West Moonee Ponds Creek corridor environs and landscape overlay that the Minister for Planning and Environment has been part of, as of 16 September 2022 a permit is now required for works along certain sections of the entire creek corridor. That includes having to obtain a permit basically for constructing or building any form of construction within a 30-metre setback from the waterway or for any building that is of a height of 6 metres above ground level. If there is a change to the ground level of the soil of around 600 millimetres, that will trigger the need for a permit as well, and proposed fences higher than 1.8 metres would also trigger the need.

I would also like to commend our friends at the Merri Creek and Edgars Creek ‘friends of’ groups. They are doing fantastic work. We announced over $605,000 of investment towards upgrading both Merri Creek and Edgars Creek earlier this year through the Green Links program, which Harriet Shing launched at Coburg Lake with my good friends the member for Preston and the member for Northcote. We really did have a great meeting last sitting week with quite a few of the creek representatives from our community, including Bernadette Thomas from Merri Creek Management Committee, and the Minister for Water and Minister for Environment, amongst others, to talk about how we can continue working on improving the health, wellbeing, biodiversity, social, community and recreational outcomes for these very important lungs and arteries of our community. It is on that note that I commend the bill to the house.

Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Minister for Police, Minister for Crime Prevention, Minister for Racing) (15:12): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.