Tuesday, 30 August 2022

 Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (12:19): (1943) My constituency question is for the Minister for Environment and Climate Action. In Northern Victoria our water catchments are full. With forecasts for a wet spring, it is only a matter of time before we will be facing serious flood events. Hume Dam is at 96 per cent capacity, and Dartmouth Dam is at 99 per cent capacity. It has been 26 years since Dartmouth overflowed. All the talk locally is, ‘How soon till Dart spills?’. People are planning trips to see the spectacle when it happens. We need to be considering increasing water storage capacity for wet years like this one. Dartmouth, finished in 1979, is the last dam built in this state. Lake Buffalo recently reached 100 per cent capacity and will soon spill. The Big Buffalo dam has been planned for decades. An expansion would help with flood mitigation in towns downstream, such as Myrtleford and Wangaratta, as well as boosting storage for irrigation in dry years. Minister, will you commit to building new dams in Victoria? It is too late for this wet cycle, but we need to act now before the next time.