Thursday, 18 April 2024

Committees

Environment and Planning Committee

Inquiry into the 2022 Flood Event in Victoria

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (09:55): Pursuant to standing order 23.22, I table an interim report on the inquiry into the 2022 flood event in Victoria, including an appendix, from the Environment and Planning Committee. I move:

That the report be published.

Motion agreed to.

Ryan BATCHELOR: I move:

That the Council take note of the report.

It is an honour to be in Echuca today to table the interim report of the inquiry into the October 2022 floods in the presence of many who were involved. The report is an acknowledgement of their experiences and a voice for their contributions, so thank you to all who made a submission and who spoke to our public hearings in Rochester, in Echuca, in Seymour and in Mooroopna. These are just some of the towns in regional Victoria devastated by flooding in 2022, some of the worst flooding ever recorded. October 2022 was the wettest month ever recorded in Victoria, and as more and more rain fell on saturated ground, rivers, roads, homes and towns were under threat. This interim report acknowledges the enormous effort from communities right across the state but especially here in northern Victoria when they came together to meet this threat. We also acknowledge the tragedy of the lives lost and the ongoing trauma felt by so many.

During its inquiry the committee heard from many about their experiences during the flood period, their journey of recovery and their determination to put in place strategies to mitigate future flooding events. The inquiry received 880 submissions, many from experts and agencies, government and other, but the majority were from those who personally experienced flooding – people whose homes, businesses, schools and streets were flooded. Of the 880 submissions, 608 were from northern Victoria ‍– 344 from Rochester, 58 from Echuca and others from Bendigo, Seymour, Kerang and elsewhere. It is never easy telling your personal story to a parliamentary inquiry, especially while still dealing with the ongoing challenges your community faces. The committee is especially grateful to those people who came and told us their story, because by doing so you gave us invaluable insights into how disasters are experienced by communities and the sort of support that is required.

The findings made by the committee in the interim report are focused on key areas where we think we can do better: ensuring effective and responsive support for communities facing the challenges presented by housing needs in flood-affected areas, ensuring that financial support aligns with the needs experienced and ensuring that processes for obtaining financial supports for recovery do not cause distress for individuals.

The committee’s final report will be tabled in the middle of this year. That report will also look at the flooding experienced in Maribyrnong and will include further findings as well as some clear recommendations about how we can improve our processes and how we can better support people to recover from disasters like the October 2022 floods, which are becoming increasingly common. The recommendations in the final report will be across three key areas: mitigation, including planning and preparedness; recovery; and response.

In addition to thanking all those who contributed to the inquiry and gave us their stories, I want to thank the committee secretariat and staff across the Parliament for the work on the interim report but also in assisting us to facilitate the input of so many in the community in our deliberations. I want to thank my committee colleagues and also the previous committee chair for her work on the inquiry. It is very fitting to table this interim report in Echuca today, and I commend it to the house.

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (09:59): As a member of the committee it is a pleasure to speak to this interim report. I would like to thank all locals who contributed as witnesses or through the submission process. As Mr Batchelor said, we heard from numerous locals, particularly in Rochester, where people were able to tell their story of exactly what happened to them during the floods, how they felt about warnings and how they felt about the recovery process after. This inquiry generated huge interest from northern Victoria and from around the state as well. There were 880 ‍submissions, 608 of which came from northern Victoria, including 429 from communities here in the Campaspe, and 344 – an incredible amount – came from the town of Rochester. That was no surprise to me as a local representative because I knew just how badly Rochester had been affected by the floods.

Our report today is an interim report; it is not our final report. It includes six findings but no recommendations. It is really a summary of what we heard from Victorians about the floods here in northern Victoria. I would say to locals, please do not be disappointed that there are no recommendations in here because there is a much more substantial report to come. There will probably also be several minority reports as well, I would imagine, to come. Our final report will include numerous findings and recommendations to government, but we wanted to have something to table here today in Echuca to demonstrate the enormous contribution made by this region to the inquiry.

I would like also, as well as thanking the locals, to thank our committee secretariat, led by Lilian Topic, who have put an enormous amount of work into this inquiry. I acknowledge that the committee also ran a submission workshop in Rochester – (Time expired)

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (10:01): I too would like to commend this interim report and thank the chair, committee and secretariat for all the work that has gone into this interim report and most importantly thank the community of regional Victoria and northern Victoria especially for your honesty, courage and commitment, demonstrated both through the hearings and to the community during the 2022 flooding events and the aftermath.

We have heard through the hearings so far that the community was stretched and stressed to its limits by the catastrophic flood events in 2022. You have demonstrated and shown your resilience in the face of the crisis and the ongoing challenges since then. In trends and themes that are emerging from the inquiry to date, the 2022 flooding event must be a turning point in how we as a state deal with future climate-related disasters. The events in 2022 have highlighted the need for better early warning systems, better communication and coordination and more trust and reciprocity between communities and authorities. We also need more planning for future events that we know are going to become more frequent and more severe because of climate change. It is not just the emergency response system that needs to be strengthened, but the recovery, both long and short term, that also needs to be strengthened. So many people we heard from are still living in caravans, so many people are struggling with insurance and councils are struggling to get permission to support and rebuild infrastructure to a higher flood-proof standard.

It is quite clear that climate change is here and we are not ready as a community. We must get ready, or more communities are going to suffer with more of these events. I thank everyone who participated in this inquiry so far.

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (10:03): It is very appropriate to be tabling the interim report of the inquiry into the 2022 flood event in Victoria at this regional sitting in the northern Victoria region. The floods impacted 63 local government areas, and this inquiry took on a critical role of inquiring into Victoria’s preparedness and response to the floods.

I remember when our committee held the very first public hearing in Rochester in August last year. Some said it was the first time they actually felt listened to. We also held regional hearings in Echuca, Seymour and Mooroopna and received 880 written submissions from across the state, including 608 from northern Victoria. Many of these were from Rochester, where nearly every home in the township, over 900 homes, experienced over-the-floor flooding. Every submission reflects a unique experience, and slowly common threads begin to emerge that help shed a light on what happened and what we need to do better in future. Sometimes when life presents challenges it may seem easier at the time to stay busy and push through, but I especially want to thank all those who took the time to share their insights as part of this committee inquiry.

This report is an interim report which includes findings, and further details, including recommendations, will be included in the final report, which is now expected to be tabled midyear. I want to acknowledge my parliamentary colleagues and the committee secretariat for their extensive work on this inquiry. I know that we all feel a sense of privilege and feel the pressure of producing a report that accurately reflects what happened and provides a clear pathway forward to better equip Victoria’s response to floods in future. But sometimes the best outcomes do not come through written reports; they come through the research, reflection, conversations and connections that happen along the way.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (10:05): We are really blessed to be in this wonderful location, and I would like to acknowledge Tara Atley’s contribution from her perspective of the floods. It is nothing short of quite emotional to sit in a room – as I did as a member of the committee, and I thank all the committee members for their sincerity and attention at the hearings – and listen to somebody whose farm has been flooded and whose cattle have been destroyed in the floods and whose houses have been decimated. But it is also inspiring to hear of the willpower and the human spirit to come together in preparing for the floods and during the events – for the sandbags and for not only that organised and coordinated volunteer effort in terms of the SES and the CFA and the Shepparton search and rescue but also that spontaneous volunteerism that we saw that so embodies the country spirit. We also heard about that spirit from the Maribyrnong community, and we thank them.

This is about listening to the country and representing the country in this interim report. There are findings. There are going to be very significant, and I think very important, recommendations for government to hear, listen to and address. There is still so much outstanding road infrastructure and other infrastructure that needs to be rebuilt, and this government does need to listen to these recommendations when they come out.

I want to also put on record my thanks to Lilian Topic and her committee secretariat. I think at no other time have we seen such effort, such real commitment, to the process of this inquiry, and I thank them for that effort.

Motion agreed to.