Tuesday, 11 August 2026

 Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (19:22): (1767) My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services, and the action I seek is for the minister to provide a comprehensive implementation report on the 73 recommendations in the 2022 flood inquiry. It needs to include the current status, responsible agency and completion timeframe for every recommendation still outstanding. This week parts of my region have again been under flood watch, a grim reminder of the October 2022 floods that devastated parts of Seymour, Nagambie, Murchison, Euroa and Benalla. 2022 is not history for our community. We remember the rising water, the evacuations and the long task of rebuilding. Adam and Alex Griffiths run Griff-Fit in Seymour, and their business was flooded in 2022. Nearly four years later they are still fighting Hollard insurance to have their claim resolved. Water was in the building by 5 pm but the region was not officially under flood until 9 pm that night, and that timing is the difference between stormwater, which their policy covers, and floodwater, which it does not. Five neighbouring businesses had claims rejected on the same basis. All five were overturned once an independent hydrologist proved stormwater arrived first. Hollard is the only insurer still refusing to accept that evidence. Adam told me today:

I’ve still got PTSD. Every time you hear about floods, you get nervous about your livelihood, and we wouldn’t survive if we were flooded again.

He kept his staff employed by taking outside work, and when he turned to Hollard Insurance, he was told, ‘You’re on your own. Good luck.’ I want to acknowledge my friend TR Keller, who has given hundreds of hours pro bono helping businesses like the Griffiths fight insurers and who has continued that work supporting bushfire-affected communities since. Selfless, sustained community services like this are exactly what carry our region through disaster after disaster, often doing the job government processes are too slow to do. Adam and Alex are expecting a baby boy in the coming four weeks. I wish you all the best for the next adventure.

There is another question here, though. What has been done since 2022 to make sure businesses like Griff-Fit are not put in the same position again? Labor responded to the 73 flood inquiry recommendations in February last year. Only 16 were supported in full. The rest were partial, in principle or under review. That is not the same as delivering them. We had the bushfire inquiry tabled just weeks ago, with 80 recommendations of its own risking the same fate. Adam and Alex should not fear every time it rains. Today a council CEO said to me that it feels like we have not learned anything from these devastating disasters. Isn’t the definition of ‘insanity’ doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome? Our communities know another disaster is coming, but the Labor government keeps ignoring the recommendations that make us resilient. Minister, I ask you to visit my electorate, see firsthand the ongoing impact of the 2022 floods and now this year’s bushfire and the absolutely dysfunctional response to recovery. These communities have been heard in these inquiries. It is time that Labor starts listening to regional Victoria.