Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I would have to take on notice whether that request has come in—to see whether anything has come into our agency or my office. I know that officials at NEMA, the new agency, have been in regular discussion with the Victorian government about repairs to infrastructure. I myself have had conversations with the Victorian emergency management minister about this issue and that there is going to be a need for significant funding. We've talked about the potential for betterment as well.

One of the issues is that Victoria is in caretaker mode at the moment, which you would recall makes these discussions a little more difficult than usual. Also, as I said, I know that some road infrastructure repairs have already started in Victoria, but there are still a huge number of assessments going on because of the scale of the damage.

You are right; definitely sinkholes exist out there. As I said, on Sunday when I was in Eugowra I saw potholes across the roads there. Equally, a lot have been fixed due to the hard work of local and state governments and many others as well.