Tuesday, 20 February 2024

Glen Waverley electorate storms

John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley) (13:52): I rise to acknowledge the hard work of all those who responded to the 13 February storm event, the most catastrophic storm event that we have seen in more than a decade. Some of the hardest-hit areas include the southern half of my electorate, with winds of up to 130 kilometres an hour ripping up trees and taking down powerlines. In particular I want to thank the Whitehorse and Monash SES volunteers who have spent days and days working tirelessly to keep our communities safe. For perspective, the Monash SES unit alone received over 1000 calls for assistance. That makes this storm one of the largest ever storm events the unit has had to respond to. To all our SES volunteers, I say a deep thankyou.

I also want to give a shout-out to the hundreds of line workers who have helped restore power to the homes across my electorate. Many of them are members of the mighty Electrical Trades Union, and I want to thank them for their work around the clock to turn the lights back on. With more than 530,000 ‍Victorian households without power at the peak of the storm event, electricians and linespeople worked hard to connect Victorians back to the grid as soon as possible.