Flood mitigation
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:15): (702) My question today is for the Minister for Water. Minister, last week hundreds of Kensington Banks residents who are affected by the flood rezoning gathered at Kensington town hall for a community forum. Melbourne Water were invited to attend and refused to provide a speaker to update the community on their flood mitigation study or what they are doing to progress flood mitigation works for the Maribyrnong catchment and the surrounding communities. Minister, even your federal counterpart Bill Shorten has been on radio saying this is simply not good enough and Melbourne Water need to significantly improve their game. Minister, when will the flood mitigation study happen?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:16): Thank you very much for that question. This gives me an opportunity perhaps to correct some of the misapprehensions about the community forum which occurred last week. At the outset, though, I do want to acknowledge the work that is happening at a community level across party lines and at all levels of government to help people who have been affected by the floods and to make sure that people understand the work that is being undertaken, including as it relates to a global tender process being undertaken by Melbourne Water to find experts to manage, to model and to provide advice on mitigation options for future flooding events. This is highly, highly technical work. It does rely upon hydrological and engineering expertise, and it relies upon a level of modelling that can anticipate what flood modelling and impact of inundation look like property by property by reference to flood modelling and those hundreds of thousands of data points. That work is ongoing now, and this is something which Melbourne Water is continuing to provide information to communities about.
The community forum was in fact set up by the current federal member for Maribyrnong. For those people who were in attendance, there were pull-ups and banners for the outgoing member for Maribyrnong at that particular community forum. Melbourne Water was asked to attend and did attend in order to provide information to people, but in light of the caretaker period which was at that time in force for council elections and the multiple levels of government that were involved in the community forum it took the decision not to participate in an event like that lest it be open to a perception that it was part of a political process. Melbourne Water has been very clear, though, including in conversations with me, that it will continue to provide information to people in and around the community.
There has also been some conjecture from community members and people have written to me to ask why I was not in attendance at that particular community forum. I was not invited to that community forum. I have continued to provide information to and receive information from Melbourne Water and also in relation to the modelling that it undertakes over the next three years across the entire catchment on what the impact looks like.
Again, Melbourne Water will continue to show up. I have sought assurances that it will continue to be available to community, and it is doing so in a range of different ways, whether that is through online communication, through written information or through outreach and inreach. This is something which we need to continue the work on, as much as anything so that people understand the impact of flooding and the work that is going into understanding how we can manage and mitigate that work now and into the future.
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:18): Minister, you have referenced the material that Melbourne Water has been letterboxing to residents in Kensington Banks. It has got vague information in it saying that the provider for the flood mitigation study will be chosen soon but that the study could take up to 18 months, after which I imagine that choosing flood mitigation options could take a very long time – you just referenced three years for modelling in your answer – and then presumably nothing will be built for years after that. Why is it fair that Kensington Banks residents are left in limbo for years, if not decades, waiting for flood mitigation while they shoulder all the risk, and will the government do anything to increase the urgency of this matter?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:19): I just want to clarify something that you referred to around flood modelling. Melbourne Water, including as a consequence of the recent Pagone review, has indicated that it will review all flood modelling every five years and undertake new modelling every 10 years, so between now and 2026 all of the modelling will take place across the catchment in the same way as has occurred across the Maribyrnong part of the catchment itself.
The tender process actually closes at the end of October. As I said, it is a really, really complex process because of the level of expertise required. A provider will be selected by the end of the year and the flood mitigation study will commence early next year. That is expected to take 12 to 18Â months to complete. Again, this is not because anybody is wasting any time. It is highly intricate, highly technical information that is required to be interrogated. Community sessions will be held in November and December, ahead of our community engagement program launching early 2025. We are taking this really seriously from within government, as is Melbourne Water, and the work will continue. Any ideas or suggestions you have about community engagement, again, let us talk about them.