Wednesday, 8 February 2023

 Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (14:18): My question is to the minister representing the Minister for Water. Yesterday Mr Nick Wimbush stood down as chair of the Maribyrnong River flood review. When did the government first become aware that Mr Wimbush had a conflict of interest?

 Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (14:18): I thank the member for his question, and I think I would care to disagree with the member’s proposition that there was a conflict of interest – that is very clear as my response to that. But I also want to be really clear that an independent review is being undertaken by Melbourne Water, as it should be, absolutely. Certainly I know that the Minister for Water – I am representing her in this chamber – and we as a government collectively are very much looking forward to the outcome of this review. It is Melbourne Water, not the government, that conduct these reviews. They are a board established independently to manage Melbourne water, and certainly we look forward to them conducting and completing this inquiry. It is an independent process, and consultations are available to all victims to do that. We are very clear that lots of those conversations are happening right across the state as a result of those floods, notwithstanding that of course the people of Maribyrnong –

Peter Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, on the issue of relevance, the question was very clearly asking: when did the government first become aware of Mr Wimbush’s conflict of interest? I would ask you to bring the minister back to answering that question, please.

The SPEAKER: The minister is being relevant to the question that was asked about a review and conflict of interest.

Lily D’AMBROSIO: We look forward to that work being undertaken and completed, and I am sure that the Minister for Water will look forward to receiving the independent report coming to her, upon which the government will take appropriate consideration of any findings or recommendations that come from that.

 Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (14:20): Why did the government’s probity auditor fail to inform the government that Mr Wimbush had a conflict of interest?

 Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (14:20): I thank the member for the supplementary question. It is effectively redundant, the supplementary question, but I will say again that we certainly disagree. There was no conflict of interest at the heart of the decisions that have been taken. Again, this is an independent investigation of course run by an independent board, subject to probity considerations for Melbourne Water to account for, and I am very confident that that is exactly what they are doing. We look forward to the final report coming to government.