Thursday, 17 October 2024

Inverloch surf beach

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (19:11): (1204) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Environment, and it relates to Inverloch’s coastal erosion and particularly the Inverloch surf beach. The action I seek from the minister is to attend a town meeting, a community town meeting, in Inverloch, potentially at the conclusion of the parliamentary sitting year in early December. I have been communicating and listening to the community members down there in Inverloch, and they are highly frustrated. They are highly frustrated because over a four-year period there has been the cape-to-cape resilience project that has come out, and in many ways they feel that there has been a lot of push polling from these so-called community engagements, where the department is actually pushing for the outcome that it wants to hear. There has been limited community consultation, and they feel like they are being railroaded.

Recently, a community briefing was provided by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, and it was attended by Parks Victoria, Water Technology, Bass Coast shire, Jordan Crugnale, community representatives from Inverloch Tourism Association, Inverloch Surf Life Saving Club and South Gippsland Conservation Society. Many felt quite frustrated, disillusioned and quite unclear about the proposed course of action at the end of that meeting. There is supposed to be a renourishment event, which would include truck-and-shovel replacement of sand and longer term dredging. In the long run what they are being sold is retreat – retreat from the coastal erosion that could eventually consume and remove the Inverloch Surf Life Saving Club, the footpath, the road and homes – and therefore businesses. This is of quite some magnitude, and their concerns are many. They also feel that there has been, as I said, push polling, with community values and community-endorsed actions for beach retention to be followed by retreat, which is unacceptable. They believe that there can be some other solutions such as land-based solutions, such as potentially hard-engineering solutions, while other solutions are being sought. Those could be but are not limited to storm tide terminal protections and lower cost and phased activities. They feel that there has been federal funding of $3 million that is going to be dwindled away in the whole process. They feel like they are being railroaded. They want actual proper community consultation where there is a diversity of expertise, information and analysis to put something else on the plate other than rearranging the sandcastles and retreating.

I call on the minister and ask the minister on behalf of this community to attend a community meeting and have a full and comprehensive discussion and not push polling by the government department.