Thursday, 30 October 2025

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (23:05): (2066) My adjournment is for the Minister for Water, and the action I seek is that the minister justify her absence from the most recent meeting of the Drought Response Taskforce. Under fire from farmers, councils, emergency services volunteers and the United Firefighters Union, the Allan Labor government was forced to huddle in their bunker back in May. Like an episode of Utopia, they desperately scribbled ideas on the whiteboard and concocted a grand plan to manipulate rural and regional voters into thinking the government cares about them. Guess what their number one initiative was? The Premier’s Drought Response Taskforce of course. They put out a press statement, they called the press pack and they got their photos on the front page and the nightly news, but they did not quite get the media they hoped for when 15 CFA trucks drove up and down Camperdown streets with their sirens occasionally blaring.

A taskforce can be effective if it is taken seriously by the government, if its members are listened to and if it leads to action. But I had great suspicion at the time that this taskforce would become an orphaned child in the long run. According to the Victorian Farmers Federation the taskforce was meeting weekly, presumably reflecting the seriousness of the drought. But as soon as the media cycle moved on to a new issue, those meetings by and large dropped off. Over the last four months they have only met once. The last meeting occurred online in late August. Ms Terpstra noted in this place on 18 June that:

The Premier is chairing that taskforce. It includes … Jaclyn Symes … Ros Spence … Gayle Tierney and many … other people who have deep connections to rural and regional communities.

Well, I can tell you that, other than Minister Spence, not a single one of those ministers, those so-called rural and regional champions – those Collins Street cowboys – turned up at that August meeting. What was their excuse? Ultimately the drought continues on in parts of western and northern Victoria. The water levels in many of our dams are reportedly lower than last year. The roads and fields look like moonscapes, and it could worsen as summer approaches. The government’s truancy clearly reflects their apathy. I call on the Premier and her ministers to immediately apologise for failing their own taskforce colleagues and the rest of our community.