Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Buloke flood recovery

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (20:38): (1274) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Treasurer, and the action I seek is delivery on the promise of flood recovery funding from the 2022–23 floods for the Buloke Shire Council. Recently at a council meeting of the Buloke Shire Council, Cr Graeme Milne moved a notice of motion to write to various ministers, including the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and I will actually read in part from that notice of motion so that I do not miss anything out. It says:

Since the devastating floods of 2022 and 2023, our community has waited far too long for the State Government to deliver on its promises of flood recovery funding.

Despite being one of the hardest-hit regions, Buloke Shire has been forced to respond to the whims of the Disaster Recovery Fund Arrangements (DRFA) assessors for the ever changing methodology and procedures to be met with the collection of evidence, scoping of works, and preparation of claim estimates.

…

Council are dealing with a backlog of flood recovery works valued between $60 million and $80 million, yet only a small contribution has been received to date …

and the goalposts keep moving long after the event.

The majority of our roads remain in a dangerous and deteriorating condition –

as the Minister for Roads and Road Safety well knows and talks about often –

with Variable Message Signs now required to warn road users of the hazards.

These are not minor inconveniences – they are serious safety risks. Damage to private vehicles has already been reported, and the situation worsens daily …

and it will continue to do so with our heavy vehicle traffic always increasing. Cr Milne goes on to say:

Our ratepayers, school buses, contractors, families, and emergency services are being forced to navigate roads that are not fit for purpose. This is unacceptable. As a small rural Shire, we do not have the financial capacity to absorb these costs alone. We rely on the State Government to honour its commitments and support our recovery.

So I would ask that the Treasurer and the Minister for Roads and Road Safety work together to make sure a small shire, which already faces such incredible resourcing issues, bearing the cost of such a large geography with a small ratepayer base, gets that funding delivered as promised from the 2022–‍23 floods.