Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) Regulation of construction on floodplains is primarily a responsibility of state and/or local governments.

The Murray-Darling Basin Agreement requires the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to be informed of any new proposals for environmental works by a contracting government or a public authority which may significantly affect the flow, use, control or quality of any water in the upper River Murray and in the River Murray in South Australia.

Any new levees proposed for the purpose of flood protection are referred to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority for advice only. The responsibility for the approval of these works rests with state governments and/or local governments.

It should also be noted that many of the levees within the system are relatively old and may predate the referral requirements under the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement.

The Australian Government also has a role in regulating proposals for new levees that may impact on matters of national environmental significance protected by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999.

(2) and (3) Most levees that have been built for protection of urban areas and agricultural land have a local impact that is not discernable at a system scale. The few levees that do have a material impact at a system scale are explicitly or implicitly included in the water resource models that are used to analyse the system response to changes in operation. In that context the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has not undertaken specific analysis of the impact of levee banks on downstream flows and floods.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has an interest in the operations of the River Murray system. Its water resource models, which include system scale effects of levees, are based on analysis of the impacts of the relevant levees.

For Murray-Darling Basin Authority projects which require specific levee bank construction (specifically the Koondrook and Gunbower Environmental works projects), detailed hydraulic and hydrological analysis has been undertaken and designs have been developed so that when the regulators are left open the total package of works, (including levees and regulators), will have minimal impact on downstream flow regimes and no change to current conditions. Any levees being constructed for projects have been designed to comply with state requirements and all necessary approvals are granted prior to construction commencing.

No advice has been sought or received by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities or the Murray-Darling Basin Authority on the impact of levee banks on downstream flows and floods since the floods in 2010 and 2011. Management of levees and floodplain flows is the responsibility of local governments (typically for urban areas) and state agencies (typically for agricultural areas).

The Victorian Parliament is currently undertaking an inquiry into flood mitigation infrastructure in Victoria. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has made a submission to the inquiry. A copy of this submission, which is a public document, is available from the Senate Table Office. The submission notes that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority is not involved in the management or maintenance of flood levees.