Wednesday, 28 August 2024

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (19:09): (805) My adjournment this evening is for the Minister for Planning. The action I seek is for the minister to provide clarity on whether homes will be able to be constructed at all on vacant lots where a 0.8-metre sea level rise is forecast in the future, where flooding may occur. I raise this for the Minister for Planning, but to be frank I am not entirely sure whether it might in fact be for the Minister for Water, because it does relate to catchment management authorities (CMAs) having the opportunity to object to potential permit applications for housing. But I think it is the Minister for Planning, because it relates, as I understand, to planning scheme amendment VC171.

Recently the Wellington shire in my electorate wrote to some 350 vacant land property owners, effectively saying that new rules have been brought in which say that planning decisions across the Victorian coastline must consider a sea level rise of at least 0.8 metres. Whilst they are not saying that homes will not be approved in that zone, they are effectively saying it is going to be very difficult and probably the CMA will be objecting to that. We know that generally when the CMA objects, although they do not have veto power anymore, there will be an issue. Although those letters have just only just gone out, already I am starting to get concern from people who own vacant land in areas like Loch Sport, McLoughlins Beach, Port Albert and Golden Beach. They are wondering if they will be able to build a property there at all. One of the issues that has come up is not the area of land itself, as to whether that will be subject to inundation in 2100, but whether the egress and ingress, the road into that property, will be subject to inundation. That in itself I think is a serious concern.

I respect and understand that this is a bit of a wicked problem. We do have some difficult decisions to make, but I think that the letter that has now gone out from Wellington shire – this will happen in South Gippsland shire, and it will no doubt happen in Colac Otway shire and many other places along the coastline – will raise serious concern among people who are planning to build a house, who are planning to retire to those areas or who are planning to set up their life in these areas, and I think we need some serious level of clarity from the state government. I know that councils have been a bit frustrated on this issue for a long time and that state governments, including previous governments, have not taken a leadership role on this, but I think communities are going to want to see some clarity. Will they be allowed to build homes in those areas? I would appreciate if the Minister for Planning could provide some clarity on that.