A committee inquiry into the 2022 Victorian floods is getting started in state parliament this week, with the backing of Northern Victoria Region MPs.
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Three out of five of the region's upper house representatives - Bendigo-based Nationals MP Gaelle Broad, Liberal Wendy Lovell and the Animal Justice Party's Georgie Purcell - spoke on the flood inquiry motion in parliament last sitting week.
The motion, negotiated between the Liberal-Nationals and Greens and passed last sitting week, was to create a "broad inquiry" by the upper house Environment and Planning Committee into the state's preparedness for, and response to, Victoria's flooding of October 2022.
Its terms include looking into the causes and contributors of the flooding, early warning systems, resourcing, floodplain management strategy and the effectiveness of engineered structures for flood mitigation.
Ms Broad, whose speech on the inquiry was one of her first acts as an MP, described it as "a chance for us to look back, ask questions and see what was done well and what we can do better".
On early warning systems, some areas didn't receive evacuation orders, causing people to wrongly assume that water levels wouldn't exceed those of the 2011 floods, she said.
Ms Broad said the inquiry would ask why there were night evacuations in some areas, and reportedly also restrictions on community text messaging.
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In terms of emergency response, Ms Broad referred to the benefit of past experience, citing the incredible community mobilisation at Rochester and the central role of the CFA - for instance in Kerang, where the local unit co-ordinated community sandbagging efforts that filled 8000 bags in less than four hours.
Emergency housing was another subject to be considered, including the role of the "excellent relief centre" at the Bendigo showgrounds.
On mitigation measures, Ms Broad believed a hydrological study should be done to assess the feasibility of installing gates on the spillway at Lake Eppalock to enable pre-releases that would help reduce future flooding impacts.
Submissions to the inquiry opened this week and close on May 8.
The committee, which intends to hold public hearings in flood-affected regions, is due to submit its report by June 30 2024.
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