Wednesday, 1 May 2024

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (14:07): (824) My constituency question is to the Minister for Water. It relates to the provision of water infrastructure on new developments at Bonshaw near Ballarat. Also, I have written to the minister about this, but I have not received a response yet. Central Highlands Water are essentially requiring land developers to install temporary infrastructure such as pump stations – $2.5 million each, mind you – but will not commit to putting permanent infrastructure in. As well as these costs incurred by developers of establishing these water pumps, they have to pay for the decontamination and deconstruction of them. So my question is: why can’t permanent water infrastructure be put in place initially, instead of forcing my constituents to install temporary infrastructure, only for it to be forced down and deconstructed again?