Thursday, 12 September 2024

Disaster recovery

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (19:06): (1164) My adjournment is to the Minister for Emergency Services. It has been nearly two years since floods impacted much of central and northern Victoria. During the parliamentary inquiry into the floods many councils raised concerns about the onerous nature of Victoria’s agreement with the Commonwealth under the disaster recovery funding arrangements. The application process for financial assistance is wrapped in red tape, and some local councils are still awaiting funds while others have reported that they have given up because the process is simply too time consuming. At recent public hearings into the financial sustainability of local councils, concerns were again raised about Victoria’s arrangements, which unlike other states do not allow flood-damaged infrastructure to be built back better – to receive funding, it must be built to the same standard as before. With parts of our state subject to repeat flood, fire and storm events, this has led to some infrastructure being rebuilt three or more times when some minor improvements, such as bitumen roads, would mean the road would be built to withstand future floods, making it more resilient.

The action I seek is for the minister to update Victoria’s agreement with the Commonwealth to ensure that betterment is permitted under Victoria’s disaster recovery funding arrangements, to reduce the heavy burden of paperwork on local councils seeking reimbursement for recovery works and to provide an update once these changes are implemented.