Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the break my electorate was impacted again by flooding. It's the second time my electorate has been impacted by flooding in 18 months. The rain started on Christmas Eve and stopped for a brief period. We then had severe storms over New years and then on 7 and 8 January we had the big downpours which triggered flooding again in the northern part of my electorate. These were volumes of rain—for example, 160 millimetres in Redesdale in less than 24 hours—that were unheard of in our part of the world. We received in less than 24 hours what the area would usually receive over three months. There were big dumps of rain on Goornong, Huntly and Heathcote, areas where our water infrastructure just isn't built to handle that volume of rain coming down. Our climate is changing and it is having a big impact on my area because of our inability to manage this volume of water. Unfortunately, we saw the same people who were impacted in the 2022 floods impacted again.

I want to give a shout-out to the amazing SES and CFA volunteers who helped community members. This rain happened over the Christmas to new year period. It happened overnight. People found themselves cut off and isolated. In my electorate, once you get outside Greater Bendigo, there are highways between the towns. Towns were again isolated and cut off. I know that lots of regional members experienced this, but for my electorate it's quite new. It is quite new to be isolated in the way that we were for the second time in 18 months. Unfortunately, as I said, the same homes went under. It's estimated that at least 200 homes had water over the floorboards. What is quite tragic for these people is that some of them hadn't settled their insurance claims from the last floods. They say their saving grace is that they didn't lose the kids' Christmas presents because they weren't living there.

Whilst the recovery effort is underway, it has been clunky. I truly believe that at local, state and federal government levels we need to work better together to get support to people right now, when they need it. We also need to work better on the recovery and resilience plan. One of the biggest frustrations for people on the night of the big downpour was not knowing where they could go that was safe. We need to make sure that everybody has a plan so that, whether you're preparing for a bushfire or whether you're preparing for a flood, you know to go where it's safe.

I really want to say to my community: we're here with you and we'll continue to stand with you to get through this tough period. We know it has been tough, and we'll continue to work to see you rebuild and build back better.