Thursday, 18 April 2024

Motions

Floods

Debate resumed on motion of Jaclyn Symes:

That this house acknowledges the October 2022 flood event and the devastating impact it had on communities in Victoria.

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (15:05): The torrential rainfall that hit Victoria in October 2022 led to one of the most devastating and prolonged natural disasters seen in this state. We watched on as already brimming rivers and saturated catchments failed to contain the unprecedented volumes of rain, bursting their banks and inundating communities across the state. The damage was extensive, impacting 63 of Victoria’s 79 municipalities and affecting thousands of Victorian families, businesses, producers and community organisations. Approximately 25 per cent of the north-central region was inundated. All river systems within the region experienced major flooding, with the Campaspe River experiencing its highest flood on record.

We know that many of our rural and regional communities were still reeling from recent flood events as well as bushfires and of course the pandemic. I want to acknowledge the impact of the floods on those regional communities in northern and central Victoria; the residents whose homes were flooded, too many of whom still wait for those homes to be rebuilt; the farmers who saw crops destroyed and livestock and other resources lost or ruined; the traditional owners who were excluded from their country and saw their cultural heritages damaged. I want to acknowledge that the trauma and loss experienced within these communities still endure for so many people.

As the deputy chair of the Environment and Planning Committee I heard many, many heart-wrenching accounts from community members as part of the inquiry into the 2022 flood event in Victoria. But we also heard extraordinary stories of bravery, of generosity, of dedication and of resilience. There were many examples, but I would like to highlight a local one. During the hearings held here in August we heard about the work undertaken by the Campaspe Shire Council staff during the floods, 40 per cent of whom were directly impacted by that flood. I am going to slightly paraphrase the transcript from that day of hearings, but it goes:

Those who could showed up every day to support the community, many juggling multiple roles and working for days on end fatigued and without adequate breaks. During the event, which lasted many weeks, our staff performed a myriad of roles … setting up, maintaining and monitoring the pumps across the shire, which were everywhere –

24 hours a day –

… clearing drains, closing roads and … maintaining road access where possible …

We forget about animals during floods, but council staff supported animal management. Council staff established and maintained 24-hour relief centres for 35 days, rotating staff from across the organisation into those roles. And again I paraphrase:

We managed the equivalent of 30 years of waste in 60 days in our waste facilities. We sandbagged our critical assets. We began the secondary impact assessments. We started damage assessments of all the critical infrastructure … there were about 33 bridges that I remember hearing of at one stage. We responded to community requests across the municipality from very anxious and distraught residents as well. They needed that support and information.

Those council staff got no break – likewise so many of our first responders and community members, who responded so gallantly to the events that were unfolding around them. The committee heard many similar accounts from across the state of community members pulling together, working day and night, helping each other and keeping one another safe. It was truly humbling.

But the committee also heard many accounts of the inadequacies of the state’s emergency response – of the confusion, of poor communications, of alerts that were supposed to warn residents of incoming floodwater that came either too late or not at all or in some cases were simply wrong. In my own region there is the township of Maribyrnong, and on the night of the floods people there went to bed having received a text saying that the floodwaters were receding – only to awaken at 3 am with the water lapping at their doors. The text they had received was simply wrong, and as a result residents were literally forced to flee and some 600 households in the Maribyrnong township were flooded – as were multiple retirement units at the Rivervue retirement village, which was not even on the emergency management plan.

The committee has spent more than a year examining these failures and grappling with what actions need to be taken to better prepare for and mitigate against future flood events. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many community members, expert witnesses and of course the secretariat that serviced the committee so it could pull together the diverse range of issues and hopefully come back with a meaningful response to address some of these issues. But as we know, these events will continue to be experienced.

While there are immediate and short-term actions to be considered, and these will be addressed in the final report of the committee into the 2022 flood event in Victoria, which will be completed in the coming months, there are long-term issues to be reckoned with as well. We know that these types of events can no longer be realistically categorised as ‘once in a decade’ or ‘once in a century’ or ‘once in a millennium’. With the inevitable acceleration of climate change, these events will be more frequent and more devastating. So how do we prepare for the inevitable consequences of climate change, the full impacts of which will be measured not in months or even years but in decades?

On the one hand we can expect longer periods of drought. On this, the driest continent in the world, water will be an increasingly scarce resource. How do we prepare for this? We need much more water storage if we are to survive extended harsh periods of drought, and theoretically we could always build more dams. But of course there is an inherent tension in this proposal because we know that extended and more intense flood events will follow those droughts, leading to the rivers and catchments overflowing and potentially inundating more communities. We also need to consider the imminent rise in sea levels and the impact that will have on housing and infrastructure, on food production, on health and on basic sanitation. For example, it would only take a very slight rise in sea levels to inundate both major Melbourne sewage plants, rendering them useless.

These are challenges that the Environment and Planning Committee will consider in its inquiry into climate resilience and adaptation that commences immediately after this flood inquiry is completed. We will examine the risks that climate change poses to our state’s built environment and infrastructure and the impact these risks will have on all Victorians. We will be looking at our preparedness to deal with these impacts, the barriers to upgrading infrastructure to become more resilient to the impacts and our readiness for future climate disaster events.

Climate change is no longer a calamity that will take place in the distant future – something for future generations to deal with. It is happening right now, and it is the biggest threat we have ever faced on this planet. The scale of the challenge can be overwhelming, but it is incumbent upon government to take action, to heed the lessons learned from the events such as the 2022 floods and to find ways to better prepare for and mitigate against the severity of future natural disasters.

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (15:14): It is now over 18 months since the major flood event that saw local communities devastated by flooding. As a member of the Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee, I have been part of the inquiry that is looking into Victoria’s preparedness for and response to the floods. The committee received 880 submissions, and we held public hearings in Rochester, Echuca, Seymour and Mooroopna as well as Melbourne, but we know that the impacts of these floods were felt right across the state, across 63 local government areas. There were many different agencies involved in the flood response, and at the time many people were asking, ‘Who’s in charge?’ With a flood of this scale, resources were stretched to the limit and local emergency services and residents did what they could to respond.

Following any major disaster of this scale it is important to reflect on what happened and what can be done better. There has been a lot of rebuilding, but subsequent flooding at Christmas and in January has brought many issues to the surface yet again. Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and intense, and Victoria needs to be better prepared, particularly in regional areas that face the brunt of floods and bushfires. But 18 months on, many regional councils are still wound up in red tape, draining staff resources in completing hundreds of pages of paperwork and trying to prove flood damage. The Gannawarra council lodged certified claims for $8.6 million with the state government in October 2023 and appointed contractors in December, but so far $1.6 million has been approved and they are still waiting on the state government to approve the remaining $7 million to repair flood-damaged roads. In Buloke shire there is close to $30 million in damage claims for roads, bridges and culverts to repair them, and to date only one project has been approved, for $300,000. In Loddon so far $4.6 million of works have been completed, and the council is still waiting on $23 million of claims relating to roads and culvert damage. None have been approved. The state government needs to approve these projects so that local councils can get the work done.

The Lake Eppalock hydrological study is open for public feedback after local residents rallied long and hard for action, and the flood study in Campaspe has recently commenced. In Huntly local residents are calling for action to clear creeks and rebuild levee banks, and progress is being hampered by the many different local authorities that oversee our waterways. In Carisbrook local residents are seeking support from the Central Goldfields shire for an independent review to examine the effectiveness of local infrastructure put in place to reduce flooding. The Rochester Community House continues to work hard to support the local community to help them rebuild and recover. After subsequent flooding local farmers are reaching out for assistance, yet short-term contracts make it difficult to employ and retain mental health workers and others involved in flood recovery support, leading to even longer wait times and requests for assistance. The federal inquiry into insurance is being held in Rochester today, and as I speak with caravan park owners and residents in flood-prone areas it is clear that insurance is a major issue. Premiums continue to skyrocket.

In Mooroopna this week I spoke with a young lady who said many of her friends have still been couch-surfing since the October floods. Their rentals were damaged, forcing them out, and there is no guarantee that they will actually be able to return home. As we undertake this inquiry into the floods, it is important to recognise that the government alone cannot respond to natural disasters, and neither can regional communities. It takes a combined effort working together to rebuild and recover.

This year the Premier signed a contract for the Suburban Rail Loop, a project that will cost Victorian taxpayers up to $200 billion, yet 18 months on from the floods residents in Rochester are still living in sheds and caravans. It is time Victoria looks to the example of states like Queensland and builds back better to ensure that we are better prepared for disasters in future. I want to see these priorities reflected in the coming state budget.

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (15:20): The motion we are debating here today is fitting, as a further conversation continues almost every day in so many parts of the state around where to from here, and it seems simultaneously just like yesterday and yet generations ago that flood was contemplated by and faced by communities in this part of the world. The devastation, to my mind, is something that is evidenced when the rain falls even in only puddles right through to surging torrents that remove all trace of the connections and the infrastructure that people rely upon every day across rural and regional Victoria but also down very close to the centre of Melbourne, and we know that living on and across flood plains, living in and around catchments and riverine waterway environments there is risk associated with increased rainfall, with rising water levels and with population growth along with the volatility that we see increasingly in weather patterns in recent years which has, and I think not unreasonably, been attributed to climate change amongst other things.

The October floods in 2022 peaked at 94.8 metres above sea level. That is the highest on record since records began back in 1867. We know that communities in this part of the world in particular are well accustomed to the impact of flood, and yet it is the extent of it which tested the resolve and indeed the capacity of communities to make and keep each other safe and indeed, in the days and weeks and months that followed, to face the devastation and to begin to rebuild.

When we think about this part of the world and the Campaspe and the Murray and the Goulburn wending its way up to Barmah, we know that it is this meeting point of rivers which creates the risk, which is also at the heart of much of this region’s productivity. Some of the wonderful, rich soils and the food production capability in this part of the world is due in large part to the way in which soil is moved and deposited, the way in which water comes and lays across the landscape in a seasonal setting. However, when the rain falls and it does not stop, when, as we heard from Tara today, all but eight homes in Rochester are inundated, we know that there is an increasing need for communities and for governments of all levels to respond to the challenges that lie at the heart of flood response and recovery, that lie at the heart of the provision of relief, but also that it is necessary to draw upon all of the resilience and the resolve, the passion, the dedication and the enthusiasm for community members to volunteer their time and to help people in their hour of greatest need even when their own circumstances indicate the probability of enormous loss for them and for their families.

What I want to do today with the time available to me is to begin by thanking, recognising and extending my respect to the thousands of people who were at the heart of the relief, rescue and recovery response from the State Control Centre, which we see and continue to see improve because of the capacity for interoperability at all levels of government to engage with everyone from Life Saving Victoria to the Department of Defence, the work for the SES and for Emergency Recovery Victoria and what we are doing with Parks Victoria. The work of local businesses and enterprises and everyone from our paramedics to our police and the work that we see tirelessly from our CFA volunteers and brigades from Fire Rescue Victoria has been second to none. We know, for example, that in my part of the world there was a six-day deployment from Gippsland up to Echuca to assist with the flood recovery and with rescues. We also know that swiftwater rescues were an incredibly important part of making sure that the death toll was not higher than it ended up being.

We continue to grieve for the loss of life, the loss of livestock, of property, of incomes and of a sense of community when roads, houses and infrastructure were swept away or otherwise disappeared from view under water. We know that across our waterways and our riverine systems, with that huge volume of water, it was in the days and weeks after that additional challenges arose and needed to be managed and addressed. From mosquitoes through to hypoxic black water, from large-scale issues around opening up access to towns that had been cut off, it was necessary to make sure the problems were identified but, in equal measure, solutions were developed and were able to be implemented. The three successive La Niñas experienced in Victoria have created a volatility the likes of which few of us can remember or recall having been attendant in the state as part of mean temperatures and rainfall. This has created a further measure of uncertainty around the way in which we understand and forecast modelling and response.

As other speakers have indicated today, this is not confined to the parts of the flood plain up here in northern Victoria. Down to the Maribyrnong, across three local government areas there, across 62 ‍local government areas around the state, the disaster and flood recovery effort was something that needed to begin immediately and be sustained over a lengthy period of time. There were people who were involved in the response who I do want to put on the record today as having been instrumental in not just the immediate response – not just the physical safety of people in and around flood-affected areas ‍– but the ongoing need to provide support following anguish and in the face of deep trauma.

The community of Rochester is one such example of the repeated exposure to the devastation of flood. When we think about 2011 and we think about what occurred then, when we think about the floods in the 1980s and when we think about the challenges associated with the millennium drought, it is this volatility that has characterised the challenges faced by communities such as Rochester. It is necessary then in that regard to acknowledge and to single out those things which do work in the face of such tragedy and uncertainty – from organisations and groups like the neighbourhood house, like the people who work for and with Campaspe Shire Council, the people who have been part of the efforts in online and social media, the exchange of information and sharing of support, right through to the partnerships within our water authorities and catchment management authorities which have been so central to the way in which information has been able to be gathered and shared and to where we go from here with modelling, flood studies, flood preparedness, early warning systems and indeed future opportunities to understand and to mitigate risk.

We saw earlier this year flooding occur again. I remember that in 2022 I stopped at an SES unit to watch the Melbourne Cup with a group of volunteers – volunteers who had been on the job for days and days and days. On Valentine’s Day many parts of the state were again under water, were again affected by storms. Storms and floods are natural disasters. They are phenomena that we are not unaccustomed to. It is the magnitude, however, of these events which tests our resolve, particularly as our populations grow, as people move to parts of the state where again the natural beauty is in and of itself an attraction and where history is something which draws us to rural and regional Victoria. But from areas like Echuca, which filled and distributed 195,000 sandbags, to Mooroopna, Mildura, Kerang, Tatura, Rochester, Swan Hill, Maribyrnong, Kinglake, Molesworth, Seymour, Shepparton and Benalla – the list goes on – each of these stories and communities deserves its own place in the history of what we have done, what we have done well, what we still need to move to improve and how we can better understand the importance of interoperability, whether that is our frontline responders, whether that is partnerships with council or whether that is working with industry within the water sector in particular: people who shored up water treatment plants so that, again, access to water could be preserved. Access to drinking water, access to functional septic systems, was able to continue while people were in the throes of absolute disarray and uncertainty because of the impact of rising floodwaters.

When we look to where we go from here, it is I think with a mixture of different approaches and, indeed, emotions. On the one hand fatigue – communities are exhausted. We have seen the impact of the constant, unwavering pressure upon groups, individuals and organisations who have sought to maintain a measure of routine, of stability, of certainty, as communities rebuild. But we also know, and I think the record will show this through the House of Representatives’ committee work in Rochester today, that ongoing uncertainty around the question of insurance – around premiums, around various parts of the sector, around prudential and actuarial risk assessment. In plain terms, how people can afford to insure their properties is another source of anguish. We are in a position as all levels of government to do something about these matters, and indeed it is incumbent upon us that we do. We also need to understand the volatility of the situation in which we live, whereby water occurs all too frequently in volumes too great or too small to meet demand or indeed to enable people to live safely and to live well.

I want to thank people who gave their time, their effort and their energy, even as their own homes were inundated, for everything they did to provide support to people in their hours of greatest need – those people from CFA brigades who went to caravan parks to extricate people who themselves had been caught in the floods in 2011 and were so paralysed by grief and anguish that they could not move. I want to thank the people who worked to make sure that children, that the elderly and that those people whether caught in drains or caught on rooftops were able to be secured and moved to somewhere safe and somewhere dry; the people who worked at Elmore to make sure that people moved to that particular facility could have temporary accommodation that met their needs and that provided a measure of support. I want to thank the people at the SEC, across government and indeed the people who continue to work today to make sure that the needs and the aspirations of communities are well understood.

We also need to take stock of the many achievements that rural and regional communities and indeed those down in the Maribyrnong area have displayed and continue to display. This is not simply a question of government intervening to make sure that risk is mitigated and removed insofar as it is also an opportunity for everybody to partner in celebrating the strength and the determination of rural and regional communities to bind together to make sure that where one person is safe, all people are safe.

There are many people who have been singled out on the public record today. There are too many to name with the time that we have available in one regional setting. What I do, however, want to underscore is the united sentiment of this Parliament, and I would hope all levels of government – particularly as we can see with the Campaspe Shire Council and with others across the many, many LGAs affected by the floods – a singular desire to continue to learn and to continue to improve. To allocate funding – billions of dollars of funding – is one thing. To make sure that the support is there in order to continue to support communities against the backdrop of flooding is another entirely. We are determined to continue this work.

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (15:35): I rise today to speak on Minister Shing’s motion 371. This motion is to acknowledge the 2022 flood event that devastated our Victorian communities, predominantly here in my seat of Northern Victoria Region. Being a resident of Invergordon I was well aware of the happenings of the flood crisis as it occurred here in the north, although I was one of the lucky ones – my home was not flooded, my children could still access their school and my husband could still make it to work and farm the dairy farm on which we live. It was wet and muddy, but we were blessed. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the many in our extended neighbouring communities.

Although I was not personally impacted by the 2022 flood event at home, I was impacted through association. Whilst on the road home from Mildura I was inundated with desperate calls from residents right here in Echuca – residents who were trying to access sandbags, sandbags that were not available. This was all prior to my election to Parliament. Luckily I was able to contact Mr Tim Quilty, who then contacted our Minister for Emergency Services Ms Symes. This saw a prompt reaction from the government, and sandbags were restocked and available to local residents.

During my travels to and from Mildura at the time I witnessed and experienced the many roadblocks, detours and personnel involved as the floods ravaged the land. It was scary. To imagine what this would have been like through my own home is something I do not want to dedicate my time to. Instead I have listened firsthand to all of our locals who made submissions to the 2022 flood inquiry. I have learned vast amounts from what these families and individuals have experienced – homelessness, business losses, deaths, environmental damage, mental anguish and trauma and an incredibly long road to recovery and rebuilding. I have also been inspired by the tenacity and resilience that my fellow northern Victorians have shown. This is what I love about my community. We are tough, proud and work together when we need to. We are there for each other. We find what we can do to help make that positive impact, and we get the job done.

In October 2022 the heavens opened up and tried to drown us out. We had close to a month’s worth of rain in two days. The floods took their toll, but we are rebuilding together. We have learned lessons and made changes, knowing this will happen again. Some have left the area indefinitely, but the majority of northern Victorians have chosen to stay and rebuild. Why? Because this is our home, where our hearts are. This is our history and our future, and we will continue to treasure this land that occasionally has us on the ropes but delivers much more happiness in the long run.

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (15:38): I too rise to speak on this motion, knowing that many others have acknowledged the extreme impact that it has had right across the state, particularly northern Victoria. That has also come out in the flood inquiry report that was tabled today, and I acknowledge all the members of that committee and also those that gave evidence to that inquiry. It was an incredibly important inquiry, and the evidence that was given was given in good faith in the hope that there would be action in the future that will prevent any future crisis happening in this particular way.

Some of those that gave evidence to that inquiry were from my electorate of Western Victoria, and specifically they spoke about the flooding that occurred in October 2022 at Carisbrook, which is only a small way out of Maryborough in my electorate. I would firstly like to acknowledge two people in particular, Wayne McKail and Greg Corcoran, but there are a number of community leaders that also made a significant contribution regarding the Carisbrook area and advocated in order to make sure that the facts around the flood levee in Carisbrook are widely known so that we can have a safe levee that protects the community, property and livestock.

I guess the main issue that I would like to talk about is the flood levee that is in Carisbrook, particularly the fact that it probably does have an issue with its design. Essentially, if locals had had input – full and proper input – into the design of the flood levee, we probably would not have had some of the challenges that resulted as part of the October 2022 floods. Locals feel as though they have not been fully consulted about various aspects of the design and a number of various treatments that have been put in place that are probably ineffective. I have met the locals – I have been out and had a look and done a tour of the flood levee – and I tend to agree there are probably a lot of changes that could be made. Locals came together and came up with a list of 10 suggestions that will help, and I would like to read them out (a) to put them on the record and (b) to make sure that everyone is fully aware of them.

Firstly, the number 1 recommendation is larger culverts under Bucknall Street. Clearing creeks to allow better water flow – currently they are clogged up with debris and tree branches and all those sorts of things. Establish culverts under Wills Street. Number 4: overland water junction – the area needs to be improved. In the October 2022 floods the levee actually broke, which caused significant damage. Culverts under the Pyrenees Highway – the current culverts there are not particularly helpful. The suggestion is to put in up to 12 larger culverts, which would help water get away a lot quicker. Currently it gets banked up and it can even overflow. The raising of the levee higher than the Pyrenees Highway is a significant point. Number 7: the raising of Marion Street has created damming of water near housing, and there are three houses in particular that are being impacted. The damming of the water has an impact on the health and livelihoods of the people around there and can cause quite big issues; this needs to be addressed. The Belfast Road pipe under the levee – the community did not approve this, they were not consulted, and it really does not make a lot of sense. Number 9: the larger culverts under Landrigan Road, particularly at Belfast and Williams Road, need to be reconsidered. And number 10: redesigning the levee and culverts, particularly as water has flowed down in such a way that it is directed towards the cemetery and has flooded it even when the rain events have not been as significant as the events we saw in October 2022 – it is not really an appropriate way of handling things.

Additionally, the group of residents want to have an independent inquiry conducted by a suitably qualified professional that examines the levee in Carisbrook so that we can get a professional independent report done which will give an indication of its suitability for the area. This would be a fairly wideranging review looking at a number of aspects of the levee, taking into account a lot of the evidence that was heard in the inquiry that was tabled today but also having a more independent look from an expert, which might give some advice on design features and so forth. My colleague Mrs Broad also mentioned that before.

I do really want to acknowledge the locals that have suffered loss, whether that be loss in terms of property, income, livestock, homes or livelihoods. Loss is very difficult to quantify sometimes, because we also have difficulty in quantifying the loss of our health, particularly mental health, and quantifying stress is a very difficult thing to do. So I want to put that on the record: we acknowledge all those difficulties that many locals faced and to some extent still continue to face. I guess this whole process has outlined the importance of having infrastructure that is able to handle one-in-50-year, one-in-100-year and one-in-1000-year flooding situations and an identification system that can figure that out, so we can make sure that we do have infrastructure in place that actually does deal with this in a way that protects locals and also those who may not be familiar with the area so that they are not put in harm’s way.

Lastly, I would also really like to acknowledge first responders in this. It is particularly important that the SES and the volunteers of the SES are acknowledged for the hours and hours and hours of work that go into protecting locals in harm’s way. We are not just talking an 8-hour shift, we are talking days upon days upon days of work, sometimes with very little break, very little sleep, in conditions that many of us might even struggle to work in. I really do want to value and acknowledge the fact that we have got some excellent, wonderful volunteers that have done some brilliant work in protecting people, communities and families and getting them out of harm’s way.

We have acknowledged that this was a significant event; we also acknowledge that an interim report has come out today with some findings. I look forward to reading through that, and when the final report comes out later on, I look forward to the government’s response. Hopefully we will see a response that encourages and gives hope to a lot of the communities, particularly the community of Carisbrook in my electorate, that a lot of these flooding events arguably could have been prevented or could have had the extent of damage lessened. Hopefully we will see those recommendations taken on board so that this sort of thing does not happen again.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (15:46): I am glad to be here for this motion that acknowledges the devastation and impacts of the floods in October 2022, and I think it is fitting that we are having a regional sitting, as I mentioned earlier in my members statement. I want to start off by acknowledging the traditional owners, the Yorta Yorta. It was great to hear from Uncle Rick both last night and this morning. I think the President was absolutely spot on when he talked about how every time, whether it is a smoking ceremony or a welcome to country, we learn something. Often I think about connection to land, and particularly here we are today talking about floods. Growing up on the farm, I can think back to the contours of land where water would sit and where we would have flooding and boggy patches, and I would bog the ute repetitively, year after year in the same place, and not learn from my mistakes. I think that that connection to land is important, and it is important to acknowledge that and to think about that. So thank you, Uncle Rick.

Natural disasters are a terrible thing, and as Mrs Broad pointed out, they are becoming more frequent and more severe in their devastation. One of my earliest memories is of the CFA trucks coming up the driveway, with local volunteers coming to put a fire out on our farm. I know that all of us are very thankful to all volunteers that assist us, whether it be the CFA or SES, in disasters and bushfires and floods and whatever it may be. Hearing Tara speak this morning – and a couple of people have touched on it so far – made me think about the initial trauma but also the prolonged disruption to people’s lives, whether it be education, accommodation, where people are living, what it means from a family perspective with families moving around and with houses being uninhabitable but also what it means for sports groups and for community groups, because we know that community is so important, particularly in the regions, where there can be more distance between people, and those bonds of community groups are particularly important.

It is in these times that we see our volunteers – and it does not matter where people are from, whether it is locals, farmers, townies, whatever – coming together, whether it is across regions or indeed whether it is across state borders. We know that we had people assisting from all across Australia and bringing in personnel, watercraft, skills and experience to help with the disaster and assist each other. In the region I represent, Eastern Victoria, obviously we have had significant disasters in the last five years with the fires in 2019–20; the floods; very recently the Buchan cave floods and the deaths occurring there, tragically; and Mirboo North with the winds that flattened the town and surrounding towns and left a terrible trail of destruction for which work is still ongoing.

I did want to pick up a few things from those opposite. I am going to talk about what occurred during the event, the clean-up of the event and the investment that we are making, but I do think it is worth noting that we are talking about natural disasters. As I have said, it is noted that they are getting more severe and more frequent, and those opposite do not seem to want to talk about a plan to deal with the driving causes. To put it quite simply, we need to acknowledge and accept that as more carbon enters the atmosphere and it warms up, we get more severe weather impact outcomes. If there is more moisture in the atmosphere and we have rains, mini tornadoes or prolonged droughts, we get worse and worse outcomes.

I have spoken in the Parliament many times about how this impacts all Victorians, whether it is through storms or whether it is through prices at supermarkets for food and groceries, because the more drought years we have, the less sustainable our farms are and the more prices have to go up. I wanted to talk about this in the previous debate, but I did not get an opportunity to. There was talk about amendments to acts around emission reductions from 2007, legislation that was set up and enacted –

Members interjecting.

Tom McINTOSH: I am hearing questions about whether it is relevant. Yes, it is absolutely relevant. It is relevant to our communities, which do not want to see worse and worse disasters occurring to their homes, to their farmlands, to their natural places, so this conversation is absolutely relevant. As I was saying before, whether it is hitting people in the hip pocket around supermarket prices for food and whatnot, whether it is insurance bills, every time an insurance bill comes to the letterbox and it is higher, that is a cost of living that is impacting families. And your side’s inaction for 20-plus years on climate change –

Members interjecting.

Tom McINTOSH: Federally. I think everyone here will remember Scott Morrison sitting in Parliament with a lump of coal. I will slowly move through things because I know that you find it all quite amusing. These have real cost-of-living and quality-of-life implications for people right here, right now. There is a cost. Those opposite like to talk about how taxpayers money is not free. Quite rightly ‍– and I spoke in my members statement this morning about this – people in the city respect and value regional Victorians for what regional Victorians contribute, whether it is through food, manufacturing or a variety of things, or ensuring that we have access to our natural spaces so that people from the city can come out and enjoy those. I think Victorians are happy to come together, whether it is through volunteering or through our tax system to pick up the bill to fix the issue of devastations as they come. But if we just run blindly and do not acknowledge the fact that this issue is going to get worse and worse, we are going to get more frequent disasters and the bill is going to get bigger and bigger, to me it is like running headfirst into a brick wall. I just do not understand it.

Those opposite are saying that they have not been in government; I think in politics broadly, whether it is in Victoria or federally in this country, the coalition at basically every step have tried to stop action on climate, and they are doing it right now with nuclear. First, they wanted small modular nuclear reactors; now they want large nuclear. I do not want to go far into that, we will leave it there, but it is just another example of them being unwilling or unable to deal with the science and the reality. I raise this because in the last bill in here – and you talk about being sensitive to issues – the opposition were firing off at us about gas and the resources under our feet. They would rather frack farmland and get resources out, not worrying about water tables, not worrying about farmers, and –

Melina Bath: On a point of order, Acting President, could you please bring the member back to the actual motion, which is on the 2022 floods?

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): I think it might be easier if I just ask the member to come back to the bill.

Tom McINTOSH: Mrs Broad and Mr McCracken were both talking about frequency of events, severity of events, and you laugh. You sit there laughing, but it is real. If you do not think it is real, why did you say it? You said –

Melina Bath interjected.

Sonja Terpstra: On a point of order, Acting President, it would really be appreciated if Mr McIntosh could continue his contribution without continual interruption.

Tom McINTOSH: If you are talking about future events and investment in ensuring that they do not occur again, then we must do both mitigation and adaptation. I think we agree on adaptation. Let us ensure that water levels do not rise, that people’s houses do not flood and community assets do not flood. I think where we are not in agreement is when your members are standing here saying that we have resources under our feet that should be tapped. I will not go into what it does for local water tables, the environment, farmland and all that sort of stuff, but the extraction of those resources and the emissions that causes and what that does for future disasters absolutely has to be acknowledged.

This event, as has been touched on, severely impacted more than a thousand properties, and 2000 ‍people have accessed emergency and temporary accommodation since the floods began. There were lives lost, and that has been acknowledged. The Parliament passes on its condolences to the families of the deceased today. Like others, I also acknowledge and thank Victoria Police, the SES, the CFA, Life Saving Victoria and ESTA, which is now Triple Zero Victoria, for the nearly a thousand water rescues that they performed. It has been mentioned a number of times just how big this disaster was, with recovery funding arrangements being activated for 63 local government areas.

There has been substantial financial support provided. There was $466 million for business and community sport flood recovery grants programs, and that was supporting our local businesses and not-for-profit and community organisations; $245 million for primary producer support through flood recovery grants, concessional loans and transport support programs; $71.6 million in financial support through business and not-for-profit concessional loan programs; and $54 million for flood recovery for small business relief. There was $44.7 million for a range of business recovery support, and $1.8 million for tourism and events to flood-impacted communities.

Just touching on that tourism side of things, one of the reasons why I am really happy that we are here ‍– and we had the market set up at lunch, with all of us buying local products – is that it is important to get that tourist economy happening again. Sometimes people are hearing about these events and how terrible they are – which they are, and Minister Shing spoke earlier about ensuring that local water bodies are safe and not full of sewerage and whatever else so it is safe for people to come back in and be in the area – but once that has occurred, it is really important to get people in and spending money in the local economy. I think that it is important for this government to be focused on supporting local regional economies over times of natural disasters. On the clean-up, there was $150 million for the state coordinated clean-up activities and $40 million for a gate fee rebate for flood waste.

Financial and legal assistance is something that I am quite passionate about. I worked for the Financial and Consumer Rights Council, helping people in financial hardship. Traditionally that has involved helping people who are in hardship for a variety of reasons with their essential services – telcos, mortgages, those sorts of things – and making sure that companies are treating them well. Disaster relief is a bigger and bigger area where we have dedicated financial counsellors, both in Victoria and Australia, because there are so many unseen issues that come out of natural disasters that people are not prepared for. It stems all the way from being underinsured through to just being able to get by when people are unable to work.

I am going to run out of time, so I just want to say I am very glad we have been able to hold the regional sitting here today in the region. Our thoughts are with everyone, and congratulations to everyone who has helped out over the time so far.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:01): To quote Dorothea Mackellar, My Country:

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

We stand on the banks of the mighty Murray here, and it is a beautiful place to live and be. We do so and we enjoy that lovely Murray River outside, but back in October 2022 she was not beautiful, she was a terror. The Murray and other rivers in the northern part of state peaked at higher levels than in the 2011 floods. They burst their banks and they created enormous turmoil in the towns of Rochester, Echuca, Seymour, Mooroopna and Shepparton, in parts of Bendigo and Kerang – I could go on – and in the smaller towns as well. They impacted the shires of Gannawarra, Campaspe, Murrindindi, Mitchell, Buloke, Loddon, Greater Shepparton and Greater Bendigo. We know that in ripping through the landscape and the townships, they tore people’s homes apart and people’s lives were also impacted to a huge degree. We certainly reflect with sadness on the lives lost – the human lives but also the animals, including livestock, pets and native fauna.

We have heard today from a variety of speakers about extraordinary acts of compassion, dedication and selfless volunteerism and of huge physical effort and support for each other. I concurred with the Leader of the House Minister Symes when she spoke about the pride of being a human being in this area and the great work that people have done.

I also feel very proud to be on the Environment and Planning Committee – I have been on that committee for nine years – and to have attended the hearings in Rochester, Echuca, Seymour and Mooroopna to listen to the testimonies of people. There is nothing more humbling to hear of than the selfless work people have done for their communities but also to be walked through people’s fear, anguish, disbelief and loss and the distress of those experiences.

It is often said that country people are resilient, but I think their resilience is sometimes tested to a point beyond resilience. I really believe that, and I have heard from listening to those people that they do not want to go through the same level that they experienced in October 2022 again – they cannot. Their resilience is stretched beyond measure. We heard about sandbags and the human chain that often existed, where people packed sandbags and would move those sandbags to where they were needed. We heard about people who purchased sand and gave away those sandbags as well. We heard about the shortage of sandbags, and we heard from CFA volunteers, SES and Shepparton Search and Rescue. We have heard very much from local councils about the work that they have contributed to their communities. On spontaneous volunteerism, we heard how people came in to the edges of towns and fed those who were working around the clock to support their nourishment. We heard of spontaneous leadership. I will just use one example from when we went to Seymour. The Seymour Football Netball Club really led the way in terms of support and action. They went into people’s homes and front yards to extricate them from difficult situations and try to salvage things of value.

We also heard in relation to pre-flood warnings the concern that many people had about the lack of warnings. If I can, I will relate a couple of comments from the interim report from the flood inquiry that we have tabled today and some of the concerns from people. One of them, a very special person, is Cameron David Lovering, who was both I think in the CFA and also a Salvation Army first responder. He said:

I personally view this inquiry as the only viable expression to date to communicate our experience in the hope that it aids our community.

From my recollection he said, ‘You’re the first members of government to come in and listen to us.’ I said, ‘Sir, we’re not government; we’re mixed MPs. We’re from government, we’re from opposition and we’re independents, but we’re here to listen.’

That gave me cause for concern, because we hear from the Victoria State Emergency Service often about continuous improvement, but I am concerned that the lessons up into the hierarchy are not being learned. I said this in the inquiry in Melbourne when we heard from the leadership of the emergency services. I said to them, ‘I know every day you come to work wanting to do the best for your state and your community, but I am genuinely concerned when I hear from people who have lived that reality in Rochester that they are not being heard.’ Now, this gentleman is in the CFA, and I am concerned that there was not that level of debriefing and community consultation that needed to be done at the time or just post the floods when the waters were receding. This is when people need to tell their experience and tell how things can be improved.

We also heard – I think it was in Shepparton – from members of the public about how in the incident control centres they did not feel there was that adequate conversation or the communication. This is about listening to the local experts; that is one thing that I have learned through this experience and this inquiry. Certainly in my own region, Eastern Victoria Region, we had floods on 9 June 2021. The experience there was that we had members of the SES, whether they were on duty or not, having coffee in the establishment when their vehicles were being flooded underneath. How are we not learning from that period of time through talking to the local experts, understanding that there are people in our communities, in all of these communities, who have had that breadth of experience whether it be in the emergency sector, the volunteer sector or maybe just from watching like mad the waterways and the river gauges? We need to understand and respect those people and engage with them from a government level. As I said, everybody in the hierarchy comes to work to make it a better place, but I am concerned – as are people that we have heard from – that they are not learning from those experiences.

But there is hope, and part of this hope is about understanding, and when we get to the recommendations – not just the findings that we hear today, and they are very good findings and we endorse them from our inquiry – we need to read those from the Labor state government, to deeply dive into the ramifications of those recommendations and to not give them lip-service but work out a way to move through them, accept them and make these communities in the northern region, in the western side of Victoria, in Maribyrnong and in Gippsland better and safer places. We heard very clearly the beautiful sentiments in Mooroopna about the need to improve the CALD community information systems, the early warning systems for them. How can they work with local council and local emergency services to bring that message really clearly into those CALD communities?

I will suspend my comments on Goulburn-Murray Water, water authorities and catchment management authorities until we have a later debate and until the recommendations come out, but suffice to say that listening to those communities we heard varied opinions on the responsibility for the how, the when and the volume of water releases and again that communication there, so let us return to that very important discussion at a later time.

We also heard about the loss of infrastructure. We heard from levels in councils that roads are not just roads, they are absolutely vital links that connect our communities, that connect people from their homes and from their places of primary production into our communities for health, education and work. They connect the raw materials, the fantastic food and fibre that we produce, into our communities and to market, to port and to manufacturing. These are absolutely of primary need.

I know people come up here from the city, for example, and they are frustrated with the potholes. I live in Gippsland, and we have immeasurable potholes and dangerous road surfaces. They need to be repaired, and we have heard it today. And I know my colleague Gaelle Broad spoke about betterment. They need to be repaired to a better position. I think Wendy Lovell also spoke about betterment – that just returning it back to what it was is not good enough. I am sure there will be recommendations post that.

We heard from the Gannawarra council, and their CEO spoke about having $8 million in certified road repair projects that were signed off by the department last October, 12 months after the floods. They went out to contract in December, and only $1.16 million of these have been approved. That is a lot of roads, road surfaces and bridges that need to be repaired for communities to repair. Give communities that importance so that they feel validated and that they are respected.

We also heard from Lincoln Fitzgerald from the Loddon council: $4 million of completed works, and this was approximately a year post the floods, but $36 million of road repairs. He also went on to say when we listened to him during the committee hearings that council has $8 million worth of its own infrastructure that needs to be fixed post the floods in sporting pavilions, halls, caravan parks and so on. So you have got $36 million in roads and infrastructure and $8 million in town building assets – these are things that need to occur and be expedited.

We heard from Rob Amos, the mayor of the Campaspe shire, and we talked about the word ‘trust’. He wants governments to trust councils more. He said, ‘We have to take a few hundred photos every few hundred metres. The maximum claim is $500,000 that we can claim per section. It just drags out this process.’ These are the sorts of things too that Brooke Ryan said, from her experience. Brooke cited the lengthy support from within the community:

I do believe that the community banded together, but we were let down by emergency services. I cannot say that strongly enough. There are things that we need to learn …

That was about the emergency services.

There are members who have quoted their experiences. We want to have a bright future in this region. We want to have assurity that there are lessons learned. We call on the government. Across debate and across the chamber from time to time there is this bickering and there is this undercurrent. I hope the government will absolutely focus on what is needed for regions to become more resilient and to build back better and support local community to feel confident that they can go back into their homes, that there will be better warning systems, that local volunteers will be better supported and listened to and that they have a brighter future, because I do not believe our locals can go through this level of concern and impact again.

Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (16:16): I am pleased to speak on this motion on the flooding that occurred here in October 22, but before I do, I just want to say how delighted I am to be in Echuca and to be up on the mighty Murray River and all its tributaries. I travelled a 4½-hour journey from a city that is 3 hours from Melbourne and I am in another city that is 3 hours from Melbourne, so I am very much an outer regional person, and I am very glad to be here listening to the unique experiences of the Echuca and broader regional community.

I first want to acknowledge the damaging effects of the floods in October 2022. It had so many impacts on Victorian communities and in particular here in Echuca and in Rochester. I want to also take this time to thank all of those from the community that stood up and went to work to protect the homes, lives and businesses of everyone. We have heard lots of contributions today that have described some absolutely wonderful joint, collaborative conduct of communities – at the larger scale and at the smaller, minute scale – working together in extraordinary circumstances. In particular I would like to acknowledge Mrs Tyrrell’s contribution. She is not here now, but she described a community working together very, very well. Right from the ground level, where there were community members, volunteers and emergency services members all stepping in and helping friends, neighbours and strangers alike, what we saw was true country community spirit come alive.

Yesterday afternoon I visited the Echuca East Primary School. This not being my electorate, I asked my staff to google primary schools in Echuca, and that was the one that came up, with the staff that responded the quickest. So there I was, and I got to meet with the grade 5s and grade 6s. I want to thank them for welcoming me into their classroom and to their school. I did have to ask them to help me in doing an acknowledgement of country, because I was not local, and they were absolutely fantastic in providing me with the language and the national groups that I should be acknowledging.

Before we got onto the flood stuff, they were definitely curious about the work of a politician. They definitely gave me the 20-question grilling. They asked me how old I was, do I pay tax, what football team I follow and what my hobbies are. I think the room nearly exploded when I answered the football team question. They also asked me about community safety and whether I have ever met Premier Jacinta Allan. How did it feel to win an election, they asked me, and did I have a difficult childhood and how long did I study at university. One young Indigenous student rather confidently asked me, ‘What is your cultural background?’ I thought that was a fantastic question to ask.

So when we got onto the floods conversation, the tone of the room did change. When I asked, ‘Who remembers the floods in 2022?’ absolutely the entire room of students put their hands up. They remembered. In fact the atmosphere really did change in the room, and the classroom was quite aware of some of the children that were more affected than others, and they were very thoughtful and generous about that.

These are some of the memories the children have. One family left town for fear of mosquito-borne diseases. Other children said, ‘We had to leave our home.’ Other children remembered how scared they were watching the waters rise whilst at the same time it was raining – continuing to rain. They remembered helping together, filling sandbags. It is a very calming exercise; I have done it myself. Filling sandbags – it can be very calming and helpful to do something practical. The children enjoyed working together on that.

So I want to say thank you to Echuca East Primary School grade 5s and 6s for sharing with me their memories and experiences. I also want to thank acting principal Josh Molluso and the office team there, who set up the details of my visit so efficiently. Echuca East is a small school. It is just under 300 students, and I was pleased to discover that about 70 of those 300 students are Indigenous students. That visit reminded me of just how much we have to be proud of in our state education system.

In October 2022 Victoria experienced the wettest month on record. Rapidly escalating warnings and worsening weather patterns triggered the emergency services commissioner to issue a dire warning to Victorians to prepare for floods. Between 6 October 2022 and 3 January 2023 over 1400 flood warnings for the Riverine area were issued to the community. Eighty-nine days of stress, uncertainty and loss were experienced by Victorians caught in the floodwaters. The VICSES worked tirelessly to ensure that they were as prepared as they could be, setting up 50 sandbag collection points around the state with the assistance of numerous local councils. During the flooding period over 1.5 million sandbags were collected and dispatched for use – an incredible number and a testament to the work of services, community, volunteers and the children at the Echuca East Primary School, who obviously also helped. As a former CFA Warrnambool brigade member, I remember making sandbags in the lead-up to the 2010–11 fires in and near Warrnambool.

Back in 2022, Thursday 13 October saw a period of heavy rainfall and again saw the VICSES and other services responding to a tremendous number of calls for assistance. During that day 3049 calls for assistance were made to the VICSES, 128 rescues were required and 1766 flood-related incidents were reported. As the days went on, the numbers began to increase as we saw water rise and floodwater begin moving further downstream. In total 20,000 requests for assistance went out to the VICSES, 957 rescues were performed and 6447 flood incidents were reported. I do not think I need to emphasise just how staggering those numbers are and just how essential teams like the VICSES were during this period.

Last night at the reception I met members of the Rochester and Echuca SES units, and it was fantastic to hear some of their experiences during the floods. As we heard earlier this morning, only eight of the houses were not affected by floods, and many of the Rochester SES members had their own properties impacted, and if not their own, then those of their family and friends. Here in Echuca you experienced some of the highest rainfall on record: 160.3 millimetres of rain recorded. The Murray River broke its peak levels of the 1974–75 floods by 14 centimetres, rising to 38.4 metres. In the space of a month and a half VICSES had over 17,000 calls for help. That is singularly the most number of calls for an event that VICSES has ever received. Over a thousand water rescues were performed to save people trapped in floodwaters, not to mention the displacement of whole communities and the devastation caused by floods to those towns and their people. These floods saw lives lost and 2000 people requiring emergency and temporary accommodation support. During this time we sadly lost two members of the Victorian community – a man in Rochester and another in Nathalia – and I offer my utmost condolences and sympathies to the families of those two men who tragically lost their lives.

Many now may still be struggling with the mental aspects of being caught in a natural disaster. We must never forget to be there for our friends and neighbours and communities. I express sincere thanks to Victoria Police, VICSES, the CFA, Ambulance Victoria, Life Saving Victoria, ESTA – or Triple Zero Victoria now – and all staff and volunteers and community members who worked tirelessly throughout the flood period. I wish to also acknowledge those interstate agencies that came and aided in flood relief efforts: the Western Australian Department of Fire and Emergency Services, the South Australian Country Fire Service and the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service. In total, 748 homes were destroyed and 1583 homes were left damaged.

The Allan government has supported communities through financial assistance, relief centres and accommodation. With support from the Commonwealth government we have invested $1.8 billion into those communities devastated by floods. $150 million was spent on a state-coordinated clean-up. Amongst all the funding for businesses, financial assistance and school and community support, $4.4 million was given to support mental health for those impacted by the floods, acknowledging the long-term mental impacts that these events have on people and communities.

In Rochester we saw hundreds of families without homes or displaced, and many are still in that situation. Immediate and medium-term accommodation was rapidly set up at the Elmore Events Centre, which became a small village of houses for those who were unable to return to their homes. As it was close to Rochester, it meant that those in the accommodation could still be connected to the community and could still attend work and attend school. This is that strength of local community that is so important during these periods of time.

After the recent bushfires I visited Pomonal, and it was very interesting to hear of the relationship between their ability to respond and recover as a community and the pre-existing strength of community networking that was there. I was fascinated to hear from members of the Pomonal resilience committee, which is a longstanding committee of their local progress association, that every November they have a community dinner, which is their fire preparation dinner. I wonder whether the best value of that dinner is from the practical fire preparation that is prompted or whether the best value is the community connections and the relationships that are formed and maintained that provide strength in a disaster situation. I actually think the latter is the case. That is what we have heard today and over the last couple of days as we have been here in Echuca. I express my appreciation to the parliamentary team for their work in establishing this today.

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (16:32): I rise to address this chamber today on this significant motion, motion 371 on the 2022 floods. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge and pay respect to those whose lives were disrupted by the 2022 floods. In October 2022 water gushed over the spillway at Lake Eppalock near Bendigo, releasing water into the Campaspe River and flooding the northern Victorian town of Rochester, with over 85 per cent of homes inundated. The flood caused serious evacuations of Seymour, Carisbrook, Wedderburn and Charlton and left Echuca residents encircled for days by floodwaters. It also caused considerable damage to farmland, roads, waterway supply and infrastructure, and some areas are still recovering.

Like residents in the north of Victoria, residents along the Maribyrnong River in my electorate have also experienced similar hardship, with over 500 homes flooded. Residents ended up living in caravans for months because their homes were really damaged and unfit to be occupied. This was due to a combination of failures: the early warning system not working properly, a lack of emergency management and bad planning decisions by the government – decisions that left hundreds of traumatised victims, something that could have been avoided. Floods in the north will have downstream consequences. The most profound effect on my constituents in the Western Metropolitan Region was a flood that affected homes around Flemington Racecourse.

History provides us with many valuable lessons. In response to the 1974 flood disaster in Maribyrnong, a 1986 government report found that a flood retarding basin, a structure to capture rising water and slowly release it near the Melbourne Airport at Arundel, would be the best application in avoiding future floods and disaster. In other words, successive governments have failed to act on this issue for the last 36 years. Let us make this 60th Parliament a parliament that seeks to protect Victorians from flooding as a matter of principle and leave the political pointscoring at the door. Let us take on board the recommendations that were provided to government. Both sides of government, from Kirner to Kennett, from Bracks to Baillieu, have failed to do so. It is time to act and act together in the 60th Parliament to make sure that the Maribyrnong River is not a scene of disaster and floods again. I strongly believe that we should treat others as we would want to be treated, so let us treat the homes of those being flooded as if they were our own. The government must do everything within its powers to assure that it will never happen again across the whole state.

Resilience needs to be incorporated into our infrastructure. The only piece of infrastructure in my area in Victoria is a 2.5-metre-high flood wall that was built in 2007 by the Victoria Racing Club to protect the Flemington Racecourse. The Bracks government, a Labor government, supported this flood wall to protect the racecourse but rejected the Arundel retarding basin, claiming it would harm the environment, flood farmland in the area, be too expensive and cost too much. One would ask the question, especially when it comes to flooding in the Maribyrnong River: are the horses more valuable than people? In 2019 the Victorian government decided there would be no new dam, citing concerns about climate change and the potential lack of water flow not making it a worthwhile investment. This decision was supported by the former Minister for Water Lisa Neville and was based on a forecast that wrote down significant reductions on water levels in our state rivers by 2065. However, three years later, what happened? Northern Victoria was struck with the devastating floods. Hopefully this underscoring will urgently make the government re-evaluate their water management strategies.

While it is important to learn what we can do better, it is also important to focus on what we do well. Being Australian, indeed Victorian, involves confronting life’s challenges always head-on. Victorians meet challenges with gusto, and our culture of mateship ensures we always support each other, as we have seen in northern Victoria over the recent flood disasters. I know my colleague Ms Bath put in her contribution Dorothea Mackellar’s poem My Country. This beautifully encapsulates our system and its beautiful landscape involving constant struggle – a sweeping land of droughts and flood plains, the beauty and the terror. This passionately illustrates that, warts and all, we love our country. As Australians and as Victorians it certainly has enabled us to recover from major disasters such as flood and fire, because it is in our blood and it is in our DNA. However, in the social contract the people of Victoria expect us to not only rebuild but build back better. Our environmental challenges strengthen us mentally and spiritually and remind us that our greatest asset is not capital but friends, family and community, as demonstrated in Echuca and all the suburbs and regions in the north of Victoria, and across the state with the bushfires.

It is time we reflect on why we are gathered here today in this library in Echuca, which has been transformed into a Parliament. I would like to acknowledge and extend my deepest respect to the members of the SES, Victoria Police and the CFA. The CFA are often forgotten when it comes to supporting flood responses. I would like to take this opportunity to share some important work the CFA conducted in northern Victoria in relation to the floods of 2022. Thousands of CFA volunteers supported the flood response, including a strike team from other areas of the state such as Gippsland, the north-west and my own electorate Western Metropolitan Region. Unfortunately, many of these members’ homes were also affected by the floods. Some could not protect or prepare their home because they were out helping the community. In Rochester 43 of 45 fire brigade members’ houses were flooded. Several fire stations and fire trucks were also affected by the floodwaters. In Echuca, emergency services had to act fast before the expected high tide mark hit. A 2.5-kilometre mineral earth levee was built in two days using excavators and a bulldozer. A similar length of sandbag levees was built along the Campaspe River to protect the homes of residents.

We must commend the hard work of these volunteers. Residents of Echuca and SES volunteers worked day in and day out to manage this severe weather event. The river rose and caused the town’s inundation. Volunteers laid down 195,000 sandbags, which reinforced the levee. I would like to take this opportunity to again extend my deepest respect to the residents of Echuca and members of the community who are volunteers. Let us ensure that communities like Echuca will not endure the hardship of another flood. We hope all these contributions will endeavour to build our infrastructure to prevent future floods and disasters in Victoria.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (16:41): Acting President, thank you for the opportunity to get up and speak on the motion acknowledging the 2022 floods and the disastrous effect these had on so many communities all around our state. I was a member of the inquiry for the interim report that was tabled today, and I look forward to the final report when it is tabled in our Parliament not too long from now. Being on that inquiry did indeed give me a unique insight into what occurred around our state and the devastating impacts it had on so many communities all around Victoria. Reflecting on the work of that inquiry, what it did was bring us to some regional towns so that we could meet with community members, properly grasp the severity of the event, listen to the people that were most affected by these floods and get a firsthand experience of the issue. I have got to say that it was quite a challenging opportunity to be given to hear of the lives, stories and circumstances of so many folks that had survived the floods. Can I thank all those members that came before us to share their insights and experience. It is never easy being someone with lived experience, getting up in front of parliamentary inquiries and sharing your story, sharing your hardships and your struggles and telling very real stories about what it means for your life today, whether it is folks living in caravans or moved out of their aged care homes or folks whose jobs disappeared seemingly overnight. There were all sorts of experiences that we heard – folks that had not slept for days and days, with only the clothes that they had with them. I acknowledge and thank them for coming and sharing those stories. And it was so good to actually see so many of them last night at the function, so thank you to those that came along.

Can I just say that there is a really important factor worth considering as we discuss the 2022 floods, and that is that it really was the wettest month in Victoria’s history, with unprecedented rainfall, and it caused real destruction and havoc across the state. I know so many have spoken about the work of our volunteers, and I will take a moment to acknowledge them and all they do. But when we talk about the havoc, it is about the social, emotional and cultural wellbeing of Victorian communities and knowing that whilst some buildings are being built, others still have a long way to go. Homes are still being built as well. So I thank them for sharing that with us and coming back yesterday evening and today to share more. It really did serve as a crucial platform to assess the response to the recent flooding and to glean really valuable insights about future preparedness – things that I had never thought to consider.

I especially acknowledge all the medical professionals and health teams that came in for some really rapid response health care, whether that was people getting their medicines or making sure people had access to equipment, aids and other things that we needed to keep people well over this time. It was extraordinary, particularly when I reflect on Rochester, where the floods had such a severe impact on the medical professionals and the pharmacies in the region, so thank you.

Also I must say that there is so much that came out in that inquiry through scrutinising the effectiveness of the current strategies – the way we do things – identifying some areas for improvement and evaluating the coordination of response efforts. I certainly am looking forward to that final report of the inquiry and do recommend the interim report to all that are interested.

I have got to say, though, throughout the flood crisis what we did see was a real demonstration of our friendships. There were friends arriving from interstate: our allies such as the WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services, I am thinking about the South Australian Country Fire Service and also from a little bit further north the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. They all came to lend their support to their neighbours and friends in need. Can I just say their support was around all sorts of things but certainly mainly consisted of deploying five rescue boat teams, swiftwater rescue crews and personnel particularly skilled in incident management, all of which significantly bolstered our capabilities during the emergency. What really opened my eyes was the coordination that happened, the seemingly seamless coordination between all those agencies – both local agencies and our friends from interstate – during that time. Thank you to all of those that do all the work in advance to make it so that when these events come up we are not struck by big surprises.

What we do know is that the 2020 fires meant that in our state we really did look at Emergency Recovery Victoria and their preparation for orchestrating regional recovery initiatives, but also statewide initiatives, whether they were to aid individuals, communities or indeed businesses that were affected. When it came to, just a couple of years later, the 2022 floods in Victoria we saw the efficient navigation and case management that was at this time paramount in ensuring that individuals were really looked after, connected with the services that they need when they need them the most and sparing them the burden of recounting their experiences repeatedly. I know that it can be a particularly traumatising experience to retell your story time and time again just to get the services that you need, so knowing that that mechanism was in place was enormously helpful. I have got to say that throughout Victoria these dedicated case managers tirelessly worked around the clock to ensure optimal outcomes for those most in need.

There was so much evidence that came to us, but can I acknowledge the work of the neighbourhood houses. They are such rock-solid backbone organisations in our state all over that stand up for communities time and time again, and the crew at Rochester are just something really special. They are made of such enormous goodwill and spirit and their resilience is unlike anything I have ever seen, so I acknowledge the work of the neighbourhood house up there and all the neighbourhood houses that stepped in to support each other during this time.

I know that there are studies and future works that will carry on as a result of the 2022 floods, but I know that we are a wiser state for having taken the time to examine what worked and did not work through both the parliamentary inquiry and the work of our emergency response agencies, and I hope that we do not see that devastation again.

Can I also just acknowledge that despite it not being more prominent in the work of the inquiry that I participated in, the loss to the cultural and intangible cultural heritage across our state from emergencies is really, really tough. Whether it was Black Saturday or the floods most recently, a little bit of our heritage and a little bit of our state story goes away with every natural disaster that we have, so it is worth reflecting on and thinking about how we can continue to protect and defend the cultural and intangible cultural heritage of our state through these most troubled of times. So thank you to everyone for all you have done; thank you for the motion before us. I know that there are others that do want to speak on this, and I will give them an opportunity to do so, but first and foremost I will end my remarks with a big thankyou to the volunteers and the communities right here and right around our region. Thank you.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:51): Like the speakers before me, I also rise to share a few remarks on the motion before us today, one which I am pleased to see enjoys wide support from across chamber, as it should. The flooding event of 2022 affected many parts of our state, but it particularly affected northern Victoria, which is why it is so good for us to be here today in this community to be hearing directly from people. I spoke before in an earlier contribution about it being, yes, great for us to be showcasing the Parliament to people up here. Even if it is a small slice of it and even if it is not quite the full experience, it is great to be showing what we do and how we work, but it is far more meaningful for me at least to be able to listen and to be able to be here in a community such as Echuca, which has been through such a terrible situation, as have many other communities of northern Victoria, most especially Rochester, just down the road from here. It is wonderful for us to listen, and I have enjoyed listening to contributions from across the house today. Perhaps ‘enjoyed’ is not the right word, but I have really valued and appreciated hearing from locals in this region as well. I have read as well with interest the interim report tabled by the Environment and Planning Committee today on this very issue, and I look forward to their full report in just a couple of months time.

Being up here and thinking of the community spirit in this region, I am reminded of a quote by American civil rights campaigner Coretta Scott King, who once said:

The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.

Today we are in a great community. That community is forged of so many people. It is forged of residents, shopkeepers, volunteers and emergency service workers – heroes in our community, both volunteer and paid, who have worked, as I think Mr McCracken said, in conditions unimaginable to many of us in this place. Mrs Tyrrell as well spoke beautifully about her experience as a resident of this region and how she was fortunately safe from most of it. She was speaking with people who were directly affected, as indeed quite a few people in this place were.

I was also moved by the comments of Minister Shing and many others who spoke so passionately, as well as by Minister Symes, who spoke about some of the amazing individuals. Really, to hear those stories relayed to this place paints that picture beautifully well. Minister Symes also talked about her experience in Benalla when she was in year 12 as a high school student going through the major flooding event that happened over there at that time. We only recently discovered this, but it turns out that something we have in common is that we were both residents of Benalla at that time in the early 1990s. The difference for me is I actually do not remember the floods, because I was one year old.

Bev McArthur interjected.

Michael GALEA: I was in nappies. But my mum has always spoken to me about that remarkable event. I think we were in one of the few parts of the town that was not directly inundated by flooding at that time. We had come up from Melbourne and lived there for a few years – a few wonderful years up in Benalla that apparently I adored very much, and I adored that the neighbours used to feed me as well. But there is a great community spirit there, and that is something that my mum always talked about to me too, that community spirit in Benalla at the time of those floods. It is that community spirit that we see here as well in towns like Echuca and Rochester and across this great region.

There is so much that can still be said, but there is so much that has already been said by others. I do not wish to use my contribution today to go over what has already been said, because I think to repeat it would not necessarily be to emphasise it, but again I acknowledge the incredible organisations that have all chipped in, from the SES, the CFA, FRV, Victoria Police, Forest Fire Management Victoria, Life Saving Victoria, Ambulance Victoria to countless volunteer organisations. In times of distress the one thing that unites us all as Victorians and indeed as Australians is that we come together to help each other out. We certainly saw that in this region in the floods of 2022. Some of us saw it from afar, but many in this place saw it firsthand and in some cases were directly involved with that too.

There are an enormous array of supports that the government has brought in to support flood-affected communities. There is still, as we have heard today, more work to be done. But I am really pleased to see all of the work that has been undertaken and the genuine commitment by all in government, but especially Minister Symes and Minister Shing, to work with these communities to ensure that they are built back better and rebuilt in a way in which they are as resilient as can be. We have a very dramatic climate system in this country and we always have, but we also know that it is getting worse each year. I believe it might have been Mr Ettershank who made a comment about a future committee inquiry that will be looking into our resilience. That is a committee that I am involved with, and I am looking forward to seeing that come to fruition.

There is much more to be said, but again I would like to finish where I started, which is to say that being here for us today is not so much for us to be talking to you, to the people of Echuca, it is for us to be listening to you. I have really valued my time up here in Echuca but also in Shepparton and in northern Victoria all this week. It has meant a lot to me. To everyone who has come forward and shared their stories with us, especially if it has been painful to do so, I just want to say a very big thankyou. I commend this motion to the house.

Motion agreed to.