Wednesday, 3 May 2023
Bills
Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
Second reading
Debate resumed on motion of Mary-Anne Thomas:
That this bill be now read a second time.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Jackson Taylor): I happily call the member for Mordialloc.
Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (11:17): Thank you very much, Acting Speaker.
Members interjecting.
Tim RICHARDSON: Not for the Murray; for Mordialloc, member for Gippsland South – but we do have the Mordi creek, Patterson River and Eumemmerring Creek going through. They are great.
It is great to get up and speak on the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. My contribution will focus on a couple of key elements. The reason that this bill has been brought forward is to reduce the pressure on flood-affected communities and revise the transitional arrangements that were amended as part of the amendments to the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Act 2021. I think for all members of Parliament as well it is a chance to reflect on the impacts of flood on communities across Victoria in October 2022 and the impacts that are still lasting across those regions. I also want to take the opportunity in my contribution to reflect on the amazing work of SES units across Victoria, who each and every day front up to a range of different major events, and I will take some time to reflect on that.
This bill will extend the default commencement date of the amendment act by a year, from 1 July 2023 to 1 July 2024, to allow more time to implement an improved framework for regulating those place-of-take approvals. It should be noted as well that that passed the Parliament and went through. This is not a reiteration of those discussions, although those that have existing arrangements in place are carrying on under that legislative framework. It is quite a narrow change, where we are extending those requirements, and rightly so. Communities across Victoria were devastated by the impacts of flood and rain events. Some areas had up to 300 millimetres impacting them in a short period of time. River systems were overwhelmed. Water storage capacity was substantially impacted, and that had huge ramifications across our communities, but particularly in rural and regional communities.
It is important to note as well some of the work that has been done by the Victorian government and the federal government in supporting those communities. We announced straightaway a flood assistance package of $877 million with the Commonwealth government and the Victorian government, a recovery support package that supported businesses, farmers and not-for-profits to rebuild and to return to trade as quickly as possible. We also note as well that that can be a difficult journey, and we have seen media coverage recently. We have always got to do more to support those communities.
I also want to take this opportunity to note that it is not just the actual dollars and cents and the built form that are so critical to get back on track. It is also, as we see in any time of crisis like this, the mental health and wellbeing impact on these communities, who have already been smashed by previous flood and fire events. We talk about resilient communities in Victoria and our regional and rural communities who are impacted by natural disasters and events, and we see the impact of climate change, the variability in weather, whether that is the La Niña events that we have had over the last three years or at the moment the El Niño watch warning that we have got. The contrast to go from those heavy rain and weather events we saw, so devastating across the eastern states of our nation, to then thinking about just before COVID when we had some extremely devastating fires across those eastern states – we just the other night at the Greater Dandenong SES unit recognised National Emergency Medal award recipients, SES volunteers who had gone and been deployed to support communities and then were impacted by fire during that time. It is so unpredictable for those communities, but it is also a time to reflect that in those moments of crisis we see huge impacts on mental health and wellbeing. That is a big part of recovery. It is a big part of the work that the Minister for Mental Health is doing, so importantly, in building a system of mental health reform that allows for those episodes of crisis where we need to deploy additional support and services, and then in any corner of the state, regardless of your postcode, regardless of where you are, you get that support and assistance, and that is a huge part of our journey.
Just to think about those impacts of those floods in 2022, tens of thousands of livestock were lost. We saw an estimated 12,000 kilometres of fencing destroyed, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of hay and silos destroyed and many thousands of tonnes of grain lost as well. That is a devastating impact on the livelihoods and wellbeing of farming communities who have given everything they possibly can. They have gone through so much with COVID and then been impacted in that way, and we recognise that they are still doing it tough and we have still got so much more to do to support those communities into the future.
So with all that toll and all that impact the last thing we need is more bureaucratic impact on them now when all of their focus and attention is on supporting one another, supporting their communities and getting their mental health and wellbeing journey back on track – literally brick by brick, nail by nail rebuilding communities and supporting their townships to get back on track. The last thing we need is more pressure on those communities by having these reforms implemented and not having the time to really breathe and compartmentalise them and have them implemented under the Water Legislation Amendment Bill. That is an important way that sometimes in our Parliament legislative reform can be considered and we can make it more fit for purpose for communities as well.
I want to take this opportunity as well to acknowledge the work of our SES. Just recently we had the opportunity to open the Chelsea SES unit, a $7 million investment in our emergency services. It is important that it is recognised that the SES unit statewide has such an integral part when our communities are impacted by flood events. Just to see some of the stats and the call-outs – there were thousands of call-outs during that time from units across our state being deployed to Rochester, being deployed by communities impacted along the Goulburn and Campaspe rivers. You think in that moment when those local community state emergency services get underway and then there is a statewide deployment – to those volunteers, some of the call-outs that we have got here just in the months of October and November: 16,000 call-outs and the shared effort and determination of 147 units, some 1.3 million sandbags laid and over 370 emergency warnings.
That shows that volunteers in our community do the very best work. It does not matter where you are in our community; if you are impacted by flood or fire events, you know that the SES, the CFA, our Fire Rescue Victoria personnel, Ambulance Victoria, if you are along the coast or along the bay, our lifesavers across Victoria, and Victoria Police do an extraordinary job. But I want to give a big shout-out to the SES, who did so much work during that time in that moment of uncertainty and trauma for communities, particularly as the catchments filled, the rivers swelled and the water was coming down. It was a huge community township effort. The best parts of Victoria’s spirit were lived in those communities that pitched in to support one another. We saw those images in Echuca as well of many days of sandbagging and defending townships and communities to the best of people’s ability. That is the best part of Victoria’s spirit: when we are chipping in to help out one another. I wanted to give a big shout-out to all of those communities as well.
It is just a technical change to this, but it comes on the back of the principles of this government of supporting people in flood rescue and recovery and also looking at some of these time frames of implementation of changes to water regimes and the place-of-take approval framework, when that comes online as well, and making sure that we get that time and that breathing space for consultation. It was acknowledged by some members as well that up to the flood events there was quite a bit of community engagement. There were a lot of sessions underway. Post the impacts of floods people have been doing other things, getting their communities back on track, and they have not been focused on this. So we want to make sure that we can alleviate that pressure, again listen to communities, go back to further consultation and engagement and understand if there is anything further we need to consider as we get that implementation underway.
That is a really important example of the number of ways that the Andrews Labor government is supporting communities. Once again we give a big shout-out to those flood-affected communities. Nearly $900 million has been allocated. We acknowledge some of the media reports recently. We want to get more and more assistance out there as we support these communities on their journey and on their recovery. This is an important stay of these implementations for 12 months, and then we are back underway with that regulation – that has been agreed to already – and its implementation date. I will say finally as well that the transparency arrangements will come into effect, importantly, from 1 July 2023, but that does not place additional impact on those communities.
Luba GRIGOROVITCH (Kororoit) (11:27): This government heard from water users during extensive consultations, especially those affected by the floods, that they needed more time to understand the new framework changes. This is why it is critical that the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 is supported. The purpose of this bill is to clarify several provisions related to the new place-of-take approvals framework to ensure its smooth operation in line with the intent of the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Act 2021 and avoid unintended consequences. It does not introduce the framework; in 2021 the Andrews government passed the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Bill 2021, which introduced a new framework for regulating the place, the rate and the time of taking water. Part of this is the place-of-take approvals framework. Place of take provides water users more certainty about their rights to take water from a river during the rare event of a shortfall and more flexibility to manage their own delivery risk. This allows for better management of the system which delivers water to rural water users and so protects existing rights and waterways.
Following the impact of the October 2022 floods here in Victoria it became obvious to the Andrews government that farmers and water users, particularly in northern Victoria, have enough on their minds with the flood recovery and that it would be senseless to push ahead with implementing the place-of-take framework by 1 July 2023 as originally scheduled. Rural and regional Victorians would simply not be able to understand and adjust to the new framework in the time frame. The bill extends the default commencement date of the place-of-take approvals framework to 1 July 2024. This extended start date for place of take will ensure that Victorians, especially in those flood-affected communities, are given the time to understand the changes to the framework as well as allowing time for additional consultation. The new framework will replace current complex provisions and make it clearer for existing water entitlement holders when they can use water during shortfalls, such as high water demand periods. It will not affect anyone’s water share. Existing entitlement holders can be assured that current arrangements will remain in place in case of any shortfall over the summer 2023–24 peak demand period. This legislation simply gives water users more certainty about their water entitlement when demand exceeds the amount of water flowing down the river. This legislation matters because with climate change expected to increase the frequency of hot days and the length of warm spells, peaks in daily water demand are likely to continue to increase.
The River Murray system has seen significant changes over the past 10 to 20 years in both supply and demand for water. Changes within the system and changing demand are making it increasingly difficult to move water to where and when it is needed for irrigation and the environment, which of course can lead to shortfall in delivery. Although such shortfalls in the Murray have been rare, the risk of a shortfall occurring is real and is increasing. While we are coming out of a La Niña weather event at the moment, the Bureau of Meteorology has already declared an El Niño watch. An El Niño event would further increase the risk of a shortfall event in Victoria if we experience lower than average rainfall for a prolonged period of time. As we know, climate change is reducing the overall water in our rivers, with more variable rainfall and hotter than average weather. That is why the Andrews government needs to act now to protect the rights of our water users and the environment.
The legislative reforms form part of the broader program of work, with Victoria working alongside the Murray–Darling Basin Authority and other southern basin states to improve the management of Murray delivery risks and support water users to manage their own delivery risks. I am pleased that Victoria, under the Andrews government, continues to deliver on our obligations under the Murray–Darling Basin plan. Victoria has already delivered 826 gigalitres of our 1075-gigalitre obligations under the plan and will return water to the environment without the need for water buybacks.
The place-of-take approvals framework also accounts for water being taken interstate from Victoria. This is because our water market is interconnected across jurisdictions in Australia, and water from Victoria can be purchased and used in states like New South Wales and South Australia. This demonstrates just how interconnected the southern basin is and why Victoria is leading the way with this critical work to protect water users’ rights in a shortfall. This benefits all water users, not just Victorian water users.
One of the most important technical changes in this bill will enable market transparency related amendments to commence separately from the place-of-take approvals framework. This means that the market transparency improvements, which the community have been thoroughly consulted on, can be introduced from 1 July 2023, earlier than the place-of-take framework. This will provide additional time for consultation with water users on the rules and regulations that give effect to the framework without unnecessarily delaying the market transparency improvements. Reforming the transparency of our water market is vitally important work. Water is, as we all know, a limited resource. In Victoria there is climate change, and this will only worsen the challenges we will face. This makes market transparency, compliance and strengthening delivery rights more important than ever. The Andrews government in this way is improving accountability, fairness and transparency in our water market and giving the public access to important information about our largest holders of water. The place-of-take approvals framework, coupled with the transparency measures, will continue to strengthen our water markets and ensure that they are governed fairly for all water users.
The place-of-take approvals framework also strengthens compliance to ensure that if anyone takes more than their approved allocation during a shortfall, they will be punished. This complements the extensive work which has been done in the Victorian water sector to ensure strict compliance measures are in place. In Victoria we do not tolerate non-compliance with our water laws. Water corporations must undertake a range of measures to ensure their compliance, including water metering, strict reporting, community education and enforcement of these rules.
I know that the Andrews government will continue to consult with affected water users and communities as this legislation comes into effect. Information about the new framework has been published on the Victorian Water Register’s website to help water users understand and prepare for these changes. The department has been working closely with our declared system rural water corporations, Goulburn–Murray Water, Lower Murray Water and Southern Rural Water – I think I need some water – and their customer committees to make sure systems and processes are updated for them to manage their customers’ place-of-take approvals when the new framework comes into effect.
Taken together with the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Act 2021, this water amendment bill provides for a stronger framework for Victoria’s water delivery challenges and streamlines – no pun intended on that one – the existing provisions for where water is taken from and how users may store it for use if it is needed and rationed.
I want to reflect on the 1990s, which of course we know were quite wet, the noughties, which were dry, and then the buckets in showers, which I am sure everyone in this house can remember. We do not want to go back to those days. I am really pleased that the Andrews government have got an actual plan of attack. I thank the government for their work in delivering these amendments and particularly the Minister for Water Harriet Shing. I am pleased to support the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023.
Meng Heang TAK (Clarinda) (11:36): I am delighted to rise today to join the member for Kororoit and the member for Mordialloc on this side of the house to speak on the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. This is another important bill that will clarify and strengthen water delivery rights for all Victorians, and I thank the minister for bringing it before us here today.
It was around this time last year that we were lucky enough to have the former Minister for Water out in the Clarinda electorate to make some exciting announcements on the Dingley recycled water scheme. The Clarinda district will soon benefit from the new pipeline delivering recycled water to our local businesses, golf courses, sport ovals and parks. I was fortunate to join the former Minister for Water to announce the $24.8 million of Andrews Labor government funding to construct the $72 million Dingley recycled water scheme, with the remaining funding coming from South East Water. The water infrastructure project will unlock 1800 megalitres of recycled water each year. That is enough recycled water to fill Albert Park Lake more than 2½ times. The project will generate $92 million for the local economy. The new 42-kilometre pipeline will deliver recycled water to 46 private and public sites, including 15 local parks, 12 golf courses, three market gardens and 13 nurseries. This is a fantastic announcement for our local community, which has a very proud history and commitment to green open space, particularly the Kingston green wedge. It is also very timely given the government’s plan for the sandbelt chain of parks.
It is an ambitious vision – some 355 hectares of parks that offer a wide range of recreational facilities and open space within our green wedge, creating a network or chain of parks – but it is one that the Andrews Labor government proudly committed to in 2018. The member for Mordialloc has already spoken in this place many times about how proud he was being in the neighbouring electorate. It was an amazing commitment and one that I will be checking in on with the Minister for Water this week. That 355 hectares from Warrigal Road in Moorabbin to Braeside Park in Dingley Village, with walking and bike trails and an adventure play area for local kids, is an amazing commitment that we are delivering together with the recycled water scheme. Investing in recycled water infrastructure demonstrates our commitment to building sustainable cities by designing pipes to supply the future water demands of our growing population, saving our drinking water supply. We see the commitment in the Dingley recycled water scheme and other projects that we see in further commitments here in this bill today.
The Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 will amend the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Act 2021, which upon commencing will amend the Water Act 1989 in order to clarify and strengthen water delivery rights. The bill will also make minor amendments to the Water Act 1989. The bill will extend the default commencement date of the amendment act from 1 July 2023 to 1 July 2024. That will allow more time to implement an improved framework for regulating the place of taking water – that is the place-of-take approvals framework – so that flood-affected water users in northern Victoria have time to consider and adjust to the new reform. The bill will also address the technical matters in the amendment act relating to these provisions before the amendment act commences operation to ensure the smooth operation of water reform and avoid unintended consequences of the reform, including to interstate and water trade arrangements.
Whilst it is technical in nature, it is also an important piece of legislation to clarify and strengthen water delivery rights, and of course this is an important consideration for all Victorians. Relating to this, we have heard from previous speakers that they have seen in the Dingley recycled water scheme project the importance of building the new pipeline to help diversify our water sources – a key objective of the $56.6 million investment announced in the 2022–23 Victorian budget to support the delivery of the Central and Gippsland Region Sustainable Water Strategy. The draft Central and Gippsland Region Sustainable Water Strategy brings long-term planning to manage waterway health in the central and Gippsland regions to create long-term water security for the community and improve water health for up to the next 50 years.
I would like to say that investing in recycled water infrastructure will also support Victoria’s response to climate change impacts, allow parklands and golf courses to remain green during dry spells, open up new horticultural business opportunities and tourism and provide a better recreational outcome for our local community. Regarding climate change, as we have heard from other speakers, the River Murray system has seen significant change over the past 10 and 20 years in both supply and demand for water. Changes within the system and changes in demand are making it increasingly difficult to move water to where and when it is needed for irrigation and the environment, which can lead to a shortfall in delivery. Although such a shortfall in the Murray has been rare, the risk of shortfall occurring is real and increasing, just like the member for Kororoit said in her contribution. Just on this point, those who remember the millennium drought in the 2000s will know the impact on businesses, parks, sporting fields and the community. So this bill is important, as are our government initiatives that will provide a rainfall-independent water supply.
We have also heard that while there we are coming out of La Niña weather event at the moment, the Bureau of Meteorology has already declared an El Niño watch. That event would further increase the risk of a shortfall event in Victoria if we experience lower than average rainfall for a prolonged period of time. So in general, climate change is reducing the overall average water in our rivers, with more variable rainfall and hotter than average weather, so we need to act now to protect the rights of our water users, including the environment. As such, I am very happy to see this bill here today and to see the important projects such as the Dingley recycled water scheme and other projects helping to address and protect the rights of our water users and the environment.
Just in terms of consultation – and we have heard a lot about this – there was extensive stakeholder consultation for the amendment act prior to and during 2021, and there is broad support for the clarifications of the amendments in this bill. There has also been extensive consultation with the place-of-take consultative committee, which is comprised of the irrigators’ representatives. It was heard from water users during this extensive consultation that they needed more time to understand the place-of-take framework changes, and as such, the starting date has been extended.
Again I thank the minister for bringing this bill here before us today and for her continued work strengthening water delivery rights for all Victorians through this bill and through other important projects in our community such as the Dingley recycled water scheme, which is using more recycled water to respond to the needs of our growing populations sustainably by delivering green public space all year round without impacting our drinking water supply. I am looking forward to working together with ministers on this important initiative and others, and I commend the bill to the house.
Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (11:46): It is indeed a pleasure to rise this morning and speak on the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. From the outset can I thank the Minister for Water Ms Shing in the other place and the former Minister for Water the Honourable Lisa Neville for all the hard work they have done in this space. Working with Ms Neville in her office as the Parliamentary Secretary for Police and Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Services was a real learning curve to see how ministers get to a point where they are 100 per cent – indeed 110 per cent in Lisa’s case – over their brief. Water was definitely something she was passionate about. We did not hear too many questions in this house about water issues because she was all over the facts and figures and made sure that those consultations and negotiations were happening. In speaking to Ms Shing from the other place just before, I note that she actually shares that passion for this portfolio area and has been involved in many negotiations with MPs and stakeholders interstate and federally to ensure that Victoria is well looked after now and into the future.
It was not so long ago that we had the minister Ms Shing in Frankston to celebrate a new pipeline delivering high-quality recycled water to green spaces, including sporting grounds like the grounds of the mighty Frankston Dolphins – I know the member for Mornington would be a life member like me of the mighty Dolphins and would be very excited about that too – and also watering some of our world-class golf courses in Frankston as well. That 2.3-kilometre pipeline will deliver climate-resilient water – a source of 73 megalitres each year to three public sites, including our football, cricket and soccer grounds, the National Golf Club Long Island course, which I believe the Premier might be familiar with, and there are also opportunities in the future to ensure that we are supporting local schools and some other community agencies or stakeholders that might need that support. The investment in these sustainable sources of recycled water is really important, and it is a foundation of a healthy, sustainable, living community, which we are in Frankston. Saving that precious drinking water is important, which I know everyone in this house – everyone regardless of what side of politics or where your views may be – would agree with. That is an important thing.
The Monterey recycled water scheme will cost a total of $4 million, and that is with water expected to become available by spring 2024. So indeed it is a really, really important investment in infrastructure in our area, from supplying water during dry spells for those open spaces to actually conserving that all-important drinking water. So thank you to the minister for coming down and announcing that funding and making that happen.
The Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023, which was brought to the house by the minister, will amend the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Act 2021, which upon commencement will amend the Water Act 1989 in order to clarify and strengthen water delivery rights, and the bill will also make minor amendments to the Water Act 1989, as we have heard many other members talk about.
The details of this bill are basically twofold when you grind down to it. The bill will extend the default commencement date of the amendment act from 1 July 2023 to 1 July 2024 to allow more time to implement an improvement framework for regulating the place of taking water or the place-of-take approvals framework so that flood-affected water users in northern Victoria have time to consider and adjust to these new reforms. I know there has been some consultation, and I have read about that consultation. It appears that the consultation was good, but it could have been attended better, and I think this allows time for that as well.
The bill will also address technical matters in the amendment act relating to these provisions before the amendment act commences operation to ensure smooth operation of the water reforms and avoid unintended consequences of the reforms, including to interstate water trade agreements, which I know from my conversation with the minister can be very complex at times.
As we have heard many of our regional members on this side of the house talk about, the water that is being spoken about in this bill is very important. It is water that goes to feeding our community, it is water that grows certain export market stocks and certainly it is something that we need to develop legislation and policy around for now and for the future. In the schools that I visit in Frankston nothing is more apparent than the fact that the kids, whether it is primary school kids even from grade 3 up to year 12, are very cognisant of the fact that there are some challenges that governments right now are facing and that they are very understanding and respectful of the fact that there are some governments that are actually taking action on things like climate change by investing in renewables, by bringing back things like the SEC to bring bills down and by promoting those renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
This piece of legislation might not be so popular in the media, but it is something that I intend to look at and take to my schools and talk about what we are doing in this space, because we do not want to end up like California. We do not want to end up like some of the other examples internationally where there was no vision for not just 10 years down the track but 40 and 50 years down the track and 100 years down the track. The infrastructure needs to be in place now. It will be too late in years to come. We have seen that in California. We have seen the fight to build desalination plants and look at other measures to ensure that their community can survive and thrive in that area without so much as bans on the amount of water that they can use on their gardens, parks and land.
On recycled water, I am old enough, unfortunately, to have grown up in a time when you actually had to apply to the local council to have a tank in your backyard. It always seemed funny to me. I lived on a farm for quite some time too, and we lived off tank water – we showered in tank water – so to be in an urban area where you could not even have your own water tank and be self-sustainable seemed really, really quite bizarre. So it is great to see people – especially in new buildings and with the building regulations – looking at putting in under-verandah tanks, their own domestic tanks, whether they be 5000 litres or 40,000 litres, to ensure that whether it be for drinking water or grey water uses that recycled water that has been treated by our water plants is not going down the drain needlessly but can be used on their gardens, down the toilet, watering their plants and filling their pools, because all this water has to go somewhere, but it is just spilling straight into the ocean.
We have known for years that we can recycle this water. We have known for years that farmers need this water, and it is through action like this that we can actually have a constructive and productive conversation with stakeholders, including interstate and including federal, about how we deal with this so our farmers, whether they be contributing to our domestic product or our international sales, do not have to plough fields of crop back into the earth. This is so important. We know that there have been some real high points and low points in this argument. There have been people that have been incredibly impassioned about this subject, so to know that they have had their say and that they will continue to be able to have their say on this very important portfolio piece really should give everyone peace of mind. I have spoken to some locals in Frankston about this – not farmers, for sure, but people that appreciate that there is that vision, there is that plan for the future and that we are not just going to let things eventuate by themselves and manifest into something we actually had no plan for.
This is a plan for the future, and this bill should go a long way to giving people the confidence they need to know that this government once again steps up. We step up, we consult, we listen to people and we actually provide the legislation that ensures that those thoughts are put into law and, for people who use this water in the various ways, that their rights are protected by the government. That is something that I think rings true. Anywhere you go in Victoria there will be people that might not agree with our style of politics, but the one thing they all say is: when we say we are going to do something, we do it. When we say we are going to get something done, it gets done, and this legislation is part of that. Can I acknowledge Minister Shing in the other place and her departmental colleagues and ministerial colleagues for their work on this. I commend the bill to the house.
Ella GEORGE (Lara) (11:56): It is my pleasure to contribute today on the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. All of us here know that water policy is an incredibly important area of public policy and that it is so important that we have a strong legislative framework to govern water use and water protection across the state. Stronger protections and frameworks are exactly what the Water Legislation Amendment Bill will contribute to. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Minister for Water and her staff for all of their work in bringing this bill to the Legislative Assembly. I think that this state is fortunate to have such a passionate water minister in Minister Shing in the other place, and I would also like to thank the previous water minister the Honourable Lisa Neville for all of her hard work over many years in protecting Victoria’s waterways and water systems.
This bill supplements the place-of-take approvals framework that was introduced as part of the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Bill 2021. The place-of-take approvals framework improves our approach to managing the approvals to take water and the delivery rights in declared systems. This gives users clearer guidelines in relation to their rights about taking water from a river during a shortfall and more flexibility to manage their own delivery risks. A shortfall is when water that is entitled to be used, including by irrigators, cannot be delivered when and where it is needed. We often see this when there is an increase in daily demand, such as during a heatwave, or when there is not enough capacity in the river and channel systems to supply all the downstream water needs. These changes, as we know, are significant, especially in areas such as the Murray River downstream of the Barmah Choke, where shortfall risks are increasing. These changes will provide for more effective and consistent enforcement and compliance with the conditions of taking water. What the Water Legislation Amendment Bill does is extend the default commencement date of the place-of-take approvals framework to 1 July 2024. This bill will also make slight amendments to the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Act 2021 to ensure that legislation functions as intended when it was introduced. The bill is being brought forward on its own to allow for the short time frame it must pass the Parliament in. It needs to be given assent prior to 1 July 2023 so that the place-of-take framework can come into effect.
It would be remiss of me if I did not reflect on the major flooding events of October 2022 and the ongoing impacts that these floods have had on rural and regional communities. This bill was not considered before the October 2022 floods. The passage of this bill will help ensure certainty for water users, particularly those who dealt with flooding last year. We understand the impact and devastation that these floods caused across the state, particularly in regions and remote communities, and it is not over yet, with many people still dealing with flood recovery, which we know can be a long and difficult process. Many of these people are farmers who are water users in our declared systems, where this place-of-take approvals framework will be implemented. Given the stress load that many of these people already have on their plate, their ability to engage with consultation on the implementation of this framework has been limited. We saw this in January this year when we restarted consultation, which had been paused due to the floods, and turnout to consultation sessions was low. We understand this as a government, and that is why we are delaying the commencement of place-of-take approvals until 1 July 2024. This will give rural and regional Victorians, particularly those affected by floods, the time they need to be ready and to be informed.
I would just like to quickly touch on how this bill supports transparency. Community consultation done by the department since the water and catchment legislation was passed in 2021 highlighted the concern that our community has for certainty and compliance in regard to water. One of the most important changes this bill will enable is market transparency in related amendments which will commence separately from the place-of-take approvals framework.
These improvements, which the community have been thoroughly consulted on, will be introduced from 1 July this year, which is earlier than the place-of-take approvals framework. We all understand the importance of water for all Victorians, and this is a government committed to ensuring that all Victorians have a strong and clean water supply, from clean drinking water in every household to ensuring Victoria’s farmers and producers have the water they need for their livelihoods. Legislation like this is an important part of how the Andrews Labor government is protecting our state’s waterways.
But it is not just legislation – this government is investing in protecting Victoria’s waterways. This government has invested a record $222 million into waterway and catchment health. I would like to take the opportunity today to speak to some of the important work being done in the Lara electorate with regard to protecting our water resources. I recently visited Barwon Water’s Northern water reclamation plant. It was fascinating to hear about how the plant operates and how it began. Many may not know that in the mid-1990s Barwon Water had begun to develop a sewerage strategy to manage future growth in Geelong. At that same time the Shell refinery, now known as Viva Energy, were looking for ways to improve the quality of their wastewater and reduce the use of drinking water in their operations. This resulted in a collaboration that saw a purpose-built water reclamation plant near the refinery where recycled water is produced for the use of the refinery. The Northern water plant is unique in that it takes both domestic and industrial wastewater for treatment. Re-use of the treated wastewater in the refinery has reduced Geelong’s drinking water use by around 2000 million litres a year, or about 5 per cent of the Geelong region’s annual demand, and recycled water from the Northern treatment plant is now in use at nearby Stead Park in Corio, saving money for sporting clubs and local council for pitch maintenance. This project is a great example of collaboration between Barwon Water, the refinery and state and federal governments, and it shows what can be done when there is investment in water recycling.
I have also had the opportunity to meet with People for a Living Moorabool, a grassroots organisation advocating for increased environmental flows for the Moorabool River. We talked about the pressure that the Moorabool River is under and the importance of certainty around water capacity. One of the key issues raised with me was the high number of private dams taking water from the Moorabool River. The Moorabool River is one of the most stressed rivers in Victoria, and I thank People for a Living Moorabool for their ongoing advocacy and commitment to seeing the Moorabool River thrive and flourish. This is a government that listens to the community when concerns like the pressure that the Moorabool River is under are raised, and in December last year a planning scheme amendment was gazetted to strengthen planning policies and landscape controls to protect the rivers of the Barwon, the waterways of the west and rivers and creeks across Victoria. Importantly, this amendment acknowledges traditional owner values and custodianship of waterways. It recognises the importance of protecting the living cultural values and heritage relating to waterway systems. Additionally, the Living Moorabool Flagship waterway program is a large-scale restoration project to improve the health of the Moorabool River, from improving native vegetation and habitats to maintaining water quality and ensuring a healthy habitat for fish and platypuses.
Water is incredibly important for all of the constituents that we represent across the state in this place, and people living in the rural parts of the Lara electorate know this all too well. Farmers and producers rely on water for their livelihoods. Their water is not sourced from those water systems covered in this legislation but from water systems like the Moorabool River that are under stress, and to me that reiterates just how important it is to act now to protect the environment and our waterways and support the rights of water users.
This bill goes to the heart of what matters to our government. We are focused on ensuring that we are improving accountability and transparency in our water market, and this bill will be complementing a suite of works and investment which our government has already done across the state to ensure strict compliance measures are in place. As a state we do not take non-compliance with our water laws and regulations lightly. Through our water corporations we undertake a range of measures to ensure compliance, and these include water metering, strict reporting, community education and enforcement of these measures. This bill will mean that we can continue to strengthen water markets while ensuring they are fairly governed for all users. Water is a limited resource in Victoria, and climate change has the potential to worsen the challenges that we face. This makes market transparency, compliance and strengthening delivery rights more important than ever.
We all understand and appreciate the value of water, and that is why we have heard from so many of our colleagues in this place this week making a contribution on this bill. As the member for Frankston mentioned in his contribution earlier, he is going to take this information to local schools in his areas, and that is something I plan to do as well. I am always struck, when I meet with school leaders across primary and secondary schools, by just how focused students are on sustainability, climate change and delivering a better environment for their future. I commend this bill to the house, and I wish it a speedy passage.
Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (12:05): It is always a pleasure to follow the member for Lara, and I thank her for a fine contribution on this, the Water Legislation Amendment Bill 2023. It is a bill that simply extends the default commencement date of the place-of-take approvals framework to 2024 – not particularly complicated. In the debate a little earlier today on frankly unrelated matters, the member for Gippsland South had a crack at saying that this was due to some failure in consultation, but I think what we need to focus on here is that consultation is something that happens around both substance and process – substance and process. The substantive consultation took place a while ago now, and the framework was put in place in fact by the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Act 2021. So the framework is in place. But in consultation about the process and the timing the government have quite sensibly said ‘We’re just going to hold off’, and the reason for holding off is a very, very good one. These communities have been through a lot. They have been through a lot. Place-of-take approvals effectively manage drought circumstances, and the irony of these communities being affected by flood is not lost on any members on this side of the chamber certainly, nor I suspect on any members in this place – that we are talking about circumstances where flood-affected communities need to manage a transition to a set of regulatory arrangements that deal with the water that they are able to access when not enough water in fact is flowing down the river. We have sort of had the extreme opposite of that, in effect, in recent times, and we know these communities have been through a really tough time.
The floods were substantial last year. They impacted communities directly. They impacted local economies. They impacted the delivery of core government services like health and education. They even impacted the delivery of the election services. In my work as chair of the Electoral Matters Committee, Acting Speaker, I know you would be interested to learn that a couple of thousand people registered from those communities to vote by telephone in the last election. We had some evidence from the Victorian Electoral Commission on that, and I think that is one clear indicator that we have got people in these communities who have a sufficient level of civic engagement that they are determined to take part in the election and be enfranchised in the political process but acknowledge that they have got some limitations in moving around and in dealing with all the great many things they have to deal with. On that basis they determined that the best option for them, for their participation, for their enfranchisement in the 2022 Victorian state election, was to vote by telephone.
So this is a government that is listening to those difficulties and those requests. We have listened to these communities on process, and we simply say that what we are going to do is we are going to push back the start date on these changes. It is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and of course the reason this bill comes before the house is because the scheduled start date was 1 July 2023 and we are seeking to push it back to 2024. That does not mean that the changes are not important – not at all. It simply reflects the lived reality for those communities, making sure that we are hearing from them the challenges and responding to them appropriately. The government stands by its reforms but is simply making sure that communities that are dealing with enormous difficulties – communities that are frankly still dealing with repairing fences and gates, doing work on their farms and spending huge days trying to get through the aftermath of these floods – do not have to deal with yet another change. The changes are good changes. Make no mistake, these are good and sensible changes. But we accept that every change requires some effort on behalf of stakeholders who are affected by it, whether it is a good change or not, and we understand that these communities are kind of maxed out. Their capacities are limited because of everything they have been through, and on that basis it is just entirely reasonable for us to offer them a bit more time to make these changes.
I am pleased of course for any opportunity to talk about water, and I do commend the minister in the other place Ms Shing for bringing this bill to this chamber and for all of the fine work that she is doing in her portfolio. I am always pleased to talk about the water portfolio, not least because of the work I have done both in my current role as the member for Ringwood and previously as the member for Burwood in relation to KooyongKoot, or Gardiners Creek, as it is perhaps more commonly known – at least for now. Gardiners Creek runs from Blackburn Lake in my electorate of Ringwood through the Box Hill, Ashwood, Malvern and Hawthorn electorates and what was formerly the Burwood electorate, following the Monash Freeway all the way down to the Yarra. The catchment for Gardiners Creek includes Scotchmans, Damper and Back creeks, and it is a serious bit of public open space. It is a cycling route, it has got ovals, it has got golf courses. There is lots and lots happening along Gardiners Creek. It is a very, very important part of the natural infrastructure and the natural environment in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The challenge historically has been that there are more than a dozen stakeholders involved in the management of that creek, and that means it is piecemeal and it means that the collaboration is sometimes there and sometimes not. You have actually got circumstances where you have got local governments, environmental groups, sporting groups, government agencies and water authorities all doing their separate bits in relation to this creek, historically with no overarching infrastructure.
I want to commend Graham Ross for kicking off the KooyongKoot Alliance, which was a very important environmental group that basically brought some of the principles from this government’s very good reforms around the Yarra Riverkeeper Association to the management of Gardiners Creek. That was a very, very important inception bit of work, and it has ultimately led to the creation of what is known as the Gardiners Creek (KooyongKoot) Regional Collaboration. That was launched just a month ago. It was a great day, as I know the member for Box Hill will attest. It was a great day because it showed that it is possible to bring together disparate working groups, disparate stakeholders, and get them ultimately all onto the one page. This one was an absolute monte for bringing together the sheer number of stakeholders. The local governments with a stake in Gardiners Creek are Whitehorse, Monash, Stonnington and Boroondara. Try getting four local governments to agree on anything, let alone something where there is interface with a whole bunch of other stakeholders and government agencies. You have got the environmental groups, KooyongKoot Alliance in particular – and I will come to the work we did with them in their inception phase – but there is also the Yarra riverkeeper, because of course the KooyongKoot feeds into the Yarra, and the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. We have got sporting groups like AFL Victoria, Golf Australia, Cricket Victoria and even the Bicycle Network that all have a stake in this. Importantly we have got two separate Victorian government agencies in both Melbourne Water and Yarra Valley Water, who have different responsibilities, one as the catchment management authority and one responsible for a bunch of the infrastructure, like the stormwater infrastructure, that feeds into Gardiners Creek.
Does it sound complex? You had better believe it is complex. That is why I was so pleased as a member for Burwood to secure $250,000 to help the KooyongKoot Alliance bring all these stakeholders to the table. There had simply never been a meeting with all of the stakeholders of Gardiners Creek in one place at one time, and through Graham Ross and KooyongKoot Alliance we were able to deliver that, which was just outstanding. $250,000 was provided to bring them all together to create these lasting and sustainable improvements. It was provided for the KooyongKoot Alliance and for the traditional owners, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin nations, to make sure that they had a voice in the protection of this very important natural asset and also very important cultural asset for the Indigenous people of this area.
It is difficult to overstate how challenging it is to get groups of stakeholders like this all together on the one page all working to a common purpose. I think it is probably the first time I have been to any event with multiple LGAs represented where there was such harmony between the various LGAs represented; there was a genuine sense of commonality and purpose despite the differing political complexion of each of those fine local councils. It spoke to that unanimity of purpose around the very, very important work of protecting Gardiners Creek, which is of course very diverse in terms of its water sources, developing it and making sure it is a natural asset that will continue to deliver for the eastern suburbs of Melbourne – the eastern suburbs that I am very pleased to say are not wholly and solely but by and large represented by fine members of the great Australian Labor Party. With those comments, I do commend this bill to the house and say that the work of the minister continues to be outstanding. I wish her every success in it.
That the debate be now adjourned.
Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.
Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.