Thursday, 24 February 2022

Severe weather event

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:42): (1779) My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Emergency Services and concerns the government’s recovery response to the June 2021 windstorms that ravaged the Yarra Ranges local government area. The action that I seek from the minister is for her to consult with the Yarra Ranges council and provide it with the funding necessary for the council to implement a comprehensive recovery plan that will support its communities still suffering the effects of the devastating windstorms that hit the shire in 2021.

The windstorms that hit Melbourne in June 2021 caused devastating property damage and untold heartbreak throughout many suburbs, including the Yarra Ranges LGA. Winds reached speeds of 120 kilometres an hour throughout the Yarra Ranges and the event destroyed 71 homes and severely damaged another 60 homes. As well as these displaced families, 32 000 residents lost power for more than a week and 3000 homes were without power and internet for more than a month. The area’s drinking water was contaminated, and more than 25 000 trees fell across the Yarra Ranges LGA.

The government’s recovery funding to Yarra Ranges council in response to this devastation has been completely inadequate, and more funding is desperately needed. I recently met with councillors and officers at the Yarra Ranges council, who outlined several key recovery initiatives. They require the state government to help them rebuild their local communities. No government funding has been made available to deliver wellbeing initiatives and programs, including making formal counselling available to victims and holding special events that would encourage community togetherness.

Funding is required to clear the estimated 2000 trees that remain felled on private land, causing a major bushfire threat across the shire. The terrain and the size of the trees mean that government assistance is needed to complete this work. Yarra Ranges council have identified that the state recovery model is built around bushfire events and the current model hinders the ability of authorities to properly respond to other natural disasters such as storms. Yarra Ranges councillors and officers indicated that every approach made to the state government for assistance is met with the same response each time: ‘We have no money’. Obviously council finds this quite frustrating, but just as concerning is that current agreement regarding recovery between the Andrews Labor government and the Yarra Ranges council was just for one year and expires in the not-too-distant future. The one-year funding of $3.5 million was clearly inadequate, and the prospect of this funding ending soon when council still has so much recovery work to undertake is extremely concerning and totally unacceptable.