Maribyrnong River flood review
David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:15): (45) My question is for the Minister for Water. Minister, in November last year the Maribyrnong River flooded and inundated, as we know, dozens of properties, including the Rivervue Retirement Village. Minister, can you explain why Melbourne Water supported the removal of the flood overlay from the Rivervue Retirement Village in 2015?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, Minister for Equality) (12:15): Thank you, Mr Davis, for that question. Firstly, I was sworn in as the Minister for Water on 14 December. You are referring to a matter which took place in 2015. Again, Melbourne Water is in the process of undertaking a review into matters as they relate to the flooding that occurred in the Maribyrnong area last October. Again, I am not going to run a commentary, as I have said many times in this place and indeed publicly, on the nature and the scope of that review. There are matters, Mr Davis, which Melbourne Water provides information to feed into. They include matters that inform planning decisions. You may well be better placed to direct that matter to the Minister for Planning. But, again, this is something which far precedes my time as minister.
As I have indicated in this place and indeed publicly outside this chamber, decisions as they relate to management of assets, as they relate to understanding the impact of environmental changes and challenges over time, cut across a number of different portfolios. They include planning. They include local government. The water authority – in this case, Melbourne Water – provides information that goes directly to understanding impact, and that is something which is the subject at the moment of Melbourne Water’s own review into the Maribyrnong flooding event that took place in October last year. So, again, there are a fair few different portfolios in what you have talked about, and again I would invite you perhaps to direct that question to the planning process that you are referring to.
David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:17): Melbourne Water obviously submits to a range of processes, and it is the action of Melbourne Water that I am seeking to understand. I therefore ask, given the minister’s answer: did she receive any briefings regarding the decision by Melbourne Water to support the removal of the flood overlay from the Rivervue Retirement Village?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, Minister for Equality) (12:18): Thank you, Mr Davis, for that supplementary question. As I indicated in my answer to the substantive question, I was sworn in as the Minister for Water on 14 December last year. I had a period from June to the end of the previous Parliament whereby I was also the Minister for Water, but that was June 2022, not 2015, as you are referring to there.
David Davis: On a point of order, President, it is a very simple question. Did the minister receive any briefings indeed in either period when she was Minister for Water?
The PRESIDENT: Mr Davis, I think the minister actually did answer that it was not her responsibility at that time, and therefore I think that was her response.