Wednesday, 11 May 2022

Environment and Planning Committee

Inquiry into Environmental Infrastructure for Growing Populations

Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (15:27): Like the member for Ovens Valley, I also speak on the Environment and Planning Committee’s inquiry into environmental infrastructure for growing populations. This particular inquiry was all about current and future arrangements to secure environmental infrastructure, particularly parks and open space, for a growing population, not just in Melbourne but of course across regional centres as well. The committee’s final report had 42 findings and 57 recommendations. The objective seemed to be how we balance growing populations with infrastructure that enables people to undertake a range of activities and where we might build this same infrastructure. I will focus my comments on regional Victoria’s perspective, and as the member for Ovens Valley said, that is articulated in chapter 8. Some of the challenges in regional Victoria that are set out in chapter 8 that I want to refer to are environmental or emergency events such as fires, storms and floods in particular.

The report really is an overview of how we can improve people’s physical, emotional and social wellbeing in the context of growing populations through the pursuit of sport and recreation activities, including walking, cycling and jogging, and where we might put community open spaces. In particular I refer to recommendation 54 of the report on page 219, which says:

That the Victorian Government consider the specific concerns raised by regional councils regarding the establishment and maintenance of public open space along regional waterways when it next reviews the Water for Victoria and regional Sustainable Water Strategies frameworks.

This is important from a local perspective. I can give the example of the Traralgon Recreation Reserve, which is in my electorate. It is home to many sport and recreation and community groups, and it is located on the Traralgon Creek. So when we are talking about assets and open spaces on regional waterways, as in recommendation 54, the Traralgon Recreation Reserve is right up that alley.

In June of last year major floods on Traralgon Creek impacted not only many local homes and residents but also the Traralgon Recreation Reserve. It was a distressing time for local residents once again, who have contended with multiple floods over the years. So livability from a residential point of view and from a sporting and community point of view was certainly compromised. Access to public open spaces at the Traralgon Rec Reserve was also compromised and, as I said, a number of clubs and organisations operate out of there in activities such as football, netball, cricket and roller derby. We have a men’s shed, we have a bridge club and we have the agricultural society operating out of there. Unfortunately through that flood of last year many of those assets were destroyed and are unusable. Subsequently we had the Traralgon flood recovery project, which sought to rebuild some assets at the Traralgon Recreation Reserve in a flood-proof manner, whilst also relocating some groups such as the roller derby and men’s shed to another site, which is open space at the Traralgon Racecourse.

This is a $10 million project. We had sought $7.5 million from the state government. Credit to the state government, they did provide some funding through the budget, $4.75 million. But for the totality of the flood recovery project we still need to secure further funds. When we are talking about livability and we are talking about environmental infrastructure, one of the things that local people want to see is progression of the Traralgon bypass. Now, you might ask, ‘What’s that got to do with flood mitigation or open space?’. The fact is that there have been previous reports done on the Traralgon bypass that state it would mitigate floodwater from the Traralgon Creek. So that would be of great assistance to the public open space for the Traralgon Recreation Reserve users and the local community and give some protection for local residents. In the short time I have available I certainly encourage the state government to try and progress the Traralgon bypass not only from a transport perspective also for local open space.