Questions without notice and ministers statements
Yarra riverkeeper
Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:00): (398) My question is for the Minister for Water. Over the parliamentary break I was disappointed to hear the news of the Yarra riverkeeper’s resignation. Riverkeepers across Victoria take on the role of advocating for the many community groups that support the health of our rivers. In particular the Yarra riverkeeper has played an important role in enabling the community’s engagement with the government’s Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017 through a regular engagement with the Yarra Collaboration Committee, which has no formal community representative. As you know, community engagement is a key feature of many aspects of the act. For example, section 10(2) states that:
Community consultation and participation should play an essential and effective role in the protection, improvement and promotion of Yarra River land.
What actions are you taking to ensure that the Yarra riverkeeper role can be restored?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:01): Thank you very much for that question, Dr Mansfield. At the outset I want to make it very, very clear that it is community that drives engagement with and within and for our waterways. We have been very, very clear about the importance of making sure that we invest in a range of programs and initiatives that develop and enhance a sense of commitment to making sure that our waterways are not only restored to a state of health, often after many generations of decline, but that they are also given a measure of investment and ongoing engagement to provide again that protection against what we know will be an inevitable impact of climate change and of volatility across inundation and through drier periods. This is a characteristic of the environments within which global circumstances for water and natural resource management are occurring.
The Yarra riverkeeper and the Yarra Riverkeeper Association are independent of government. But what they have done and what they continue to do is work alongside us, including as we develop and implement the Yarra River plan. You would know that the living entity status of this river has been a world-leading initiative. Burndap Birrarung Burndap Umarkoo, which is the Yarra strategic plan, has also been a key part of the work that we are doing to make sure that First Nations engagement and connection and self-determination are at the heart of making and keeping these really precious ecosystems as healthy and as activated as possible.
We have supported the Yarra riverkeeper with more than $1 million of grant funding through the Port Phillip Bay Fund and the iconic urban waterways fund, and we would welcome the Yarra Riverkeeper Association’s applications for further grant funding. Again, it is one organisation of so many across the state who do so much to make and keep our waterways as healthy as possible. We see all over the place when we are resurfacing creeks and when we are engaging with communities in growth areas we are also making sure that we are assisting with their future protection and preservation. So we will continue to provide support through the Yarra strategic plan, and that is a multi-agency action plan that involves collaboration and partnership between Melbourne Water, councils of course, Parks Victoria and other water corporations. I hope that gives you a measure of understanding about the way in which its work fits into the landscape of broader partnerships in natural resource management.
Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:04): Thank you for that response. As I have outlined, an important function of the Yarra riverkeeper was to bring community concerns to the Yarra committee. This also went some way to providing the community with transparency regarding the implementation of the Yarra strategic plan. So without the Yarra riverkeeper and with no representation for the environmental community on the Yarra committee, will the minister consider setting up a formal mechanism for community representation on the Yarra committee?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:04): Thanks, Dr Mansfield, for that supplementary. I suspect I may well have addressed parts of that in the answer to the substantive question. Again, partnerships are informed by community input across a range of discussions, including through those partner organisations. Councils engage with community members. Landcare is driven by and for and with communities. Water corporations – including Melbourne Water, which is a part of this work on the strategic plan – have a very clear community interface. And this is where we will continue to provide those input measures, including through grant funding opportunities, and I would really encourage the Yarra Riverkeeper Association to make sure that they are in the mix for that.
Community input, as I said, is absolutely vital to understanding the needs of our waterways but also the opportunities that exist to keep doing what is working, whether that is about vegetation management, whether that is about making sure we can understand variations in seasonal flow or whether it is about activating citizen scientists in our community. So, again, communities are at the heart of this work, and I would encourage them to apply.