Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Ministers statements: flood recovery

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:10): I would like to use my ministers statement today as an opportunity to update the house on how the government is supporting communities impacted by storms and floods over the recent holiday period. In the Christmas period SES received 1300 requests for assistance, and 160 storm and flood warnings were published on VicEmergency. Between 7 and 11 January SES received an additional 1900 requests for assistance, 854 relating to flood. The state recorded its wettest nine days of January since records began. Heathcote received 150 millimetres of rain in 24 hours.

Yesterday I was pleased to announce a package of more than $100 million for increased financial assistance to support immediate and long-term recovery efforts for those communities impacted, and many people appreciate in this chamber that those incidents were occurring to the same communities that were impacted by the 2022 floods, who are all in various stages of recovery.

The Minister for Roads and Road Safety in the other place will be on a construction blitz, with funding for emergency roadworks from rebuilding roads and bridges to fixing potholes and resurfacing roads. We have expanded the recovery support program and personal hardship relief payments available to eligible households, and we have activated disaster assistance for 28 local government areas.

For those that are in need of housing, mental health and financial support, I would encourage you to contact the flood recovery hotline. This is a place, a one-stop shop where you can be connected to services that are available, and that is 1800 560 760.

I want to thank all of the emergency services personnel, especially our emergency services volunteers, who once again answered the call for help, despite the fact that many of them were on holidays and wanting to spend time with their families. They gave that up to answer the call.

As we know, many of these communities are experiencing compounding events. One of the benefits of this is that those communities were well versed and knew what to do and responded appropriately. Emergency Recovery Victoria will continue to support communities and councils on what we know can be a very long road to recovery. And of course I would like to acknowledge today is the 15-year anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires.