Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (17:32): (1847) My adjournment is to the Minister for Environment on behalf of Frank Primerano of Whorouly. Mr Primerano has a farm at Whorouly, located on the Ovens River. Approximately five years ago the bank of the river was severely damaged and eroded and basically was washed away by a major rainfall event, and that happens. Frank and his neighbour Ed Costenaro invited me and the North East Catchment Management Authority to go and have a look, and it was a $40,000 rebuild to the bank. We argued with NECMA that the river belongs to the community so the river maintenance should be a community cost. Well, that did not happen; NECMA said they had no money as usual. So they went ahead and they fixed the damaged river at their own cost. You will not believe it: flooding this year has washed all that rock away, and they have now got another bill that will be $50,000 to $100,000 to fix that river. It really is outrageous that NECMA and the state government will again tell the farm owners, ‘It’s your cost.’ So the action that I seek is that NECMA and the minister stop buck-passing, come and visit the site and fund the repair works, because it is a community asset. It does not belong to the farm owners. Yes, they do get benefits out of being on a riverfrontage, but at the end of the day the river does not belong to them, it belongs to the community, and the community should pay to have it repaired.