Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): It is with pleasure that I rise to speak in support of the Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Bill 2021, which will help deliver a stronger and more transparent water and catchment sector.

In my inaugural address to the house, I noted the strong connection the electorate of Northcote has to our catchment and waterways.

Our inner northern suburbs are cradled by three waterways: the Darebin Creek, the Merri Creek and the Yarra River.

These waterways breathe life into our community.

They are a source of connection to our past, our environment and each other.

Truly, water is the lifeblood of this country—so much of who we are, the way we live, how our cities have been built and our economy is tied up with our creeks, rivers and waterways.

Over the generations, our towns, cities and society have changed but the importance of our water resources and our connection to it have remained.

For many local families, these creeks and rivers have been the site of countless picnics, walks and life events—they are a part of our shared memories, our personal stories.

Indeed, I have many fond memories growing up in Alphington, a few streets back from the Darebin Parklands, where my brothers and I would often go exploring by the creek. They are cherished memories.

The special place these kinds of experiences hold in the hearts of residents can best be seen through the dedicated work of the many local organisations who volunteer their time to care for the health and biodiversity of our waterways.

Of an evening or a weekend, it is not unusual to see the passionate members of groups like the Friends of Merri Creek cleaning up and restoring the creek.

But more than that, groups like Friends of Merri Creek have been pivotal to transforming neglected and weed-filled areas into healthy, beautiful trails, parks and waterways.

They conduct bird surveys, advocate for improvements and play a central role in raising awareness about the importance of protecting the creeks and rivers that weave their way through our communities.

Recently, I have had the pleasure of assisting one of our hardworking residents, Tim Holdsworth, to get some maintenance works done on the litter traps at the Bullen’s drain on the Northcote Golf Course. Tim has been a fantastic advocate for improving this drain to better protect the Merri Creek system.

For Northcote locals, I know the connections we feel to our local waterways have fed into a deep and abiding interest in how we use and protect our water resources across the state.

We understand that as population growth and climate change pose an ever-increasing threat to our water resources, it is more important than ever that we ensure the efficient operation of our water catchment sector.

Because the reality is that the impact of water scarcity on our society, economy, environment and psyche can be immense—from tinder-dry gardens in Melbourne’s inner north and small businesses like nurseries closing their doors to sports fields transformed into dust bowls.

For our regional areas, the impacts can be felt even more deeply, leading to job losses in agriculture and dependent industries—with every job, every impacted farm, reflecting a family doing it tough.

Too often in the past our stories have been shaped by water scarcity.

Indeed, one of my own staff members grew up in country New South Wales on a rice farm during the millennial drought. She’s spoken to me about those formative years and the immense mental health impact on her family of water scarcity.

She has told me of the anxiety of the harvest, the blow when the rain just doesn’t come. So much of her family’s identity and wellbeing has been intrinsically tied up in the availability of water.

While some of us are fortunate to have nostalgic memories of water in our childhood, it’s a reminder that there are others whose memories are very different and extremely challenging.

Speaker, it is not enough to pray for rain and rely on restrictions as those opposite would have us do.

We must take proactive, responsible and tangible action to protect our water catchments to ensure reliability, sustainability and affordability.

The Andrews Labor government set out its plan in Water for Victoria, which launched in 2016.

This plan acknowledges and acts on the pressures impacting our water catchment sector, including the impacts of climate change.

Through this plan we have pursued a range of measures to secure our water supply, including efficiencies, water savings and an active investment in modern infrastructure like the Connections Project—Australia’s largest irrigation project.

Thanks to these efforts and projects like desalination, we are now in a healthy position coming into the summer months—but as we all know too well, that has not always been the case.

Nor should we take this for granted.

This bill reforms the water and catchment sector in a number of areas, including:

• formalising the integration of Western Water and City West Water into Greater Western Water;

• transferring the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority to Melbourne Water;

• meeting community calls for greater transparency and compliance to make sure our irrigation water is being used fairly and in line with the rules;

• delivering on calls from irrigators for greater transparency on water ownership and trading;

• further strengthening deterrents to water theft as well as implementing a better framework for managing the growing challenges of delivering water in the Murray River to irrigators and the environment; and

• replacing the Victorian Catchment Management Council with independent, regionally based advisory committees.

This last point will be of particular interest to many of my constituents as this change is about recognising that the wellbeing and prosperity of Victorian communities is closely tied to the health of our waterways and catchments.

The Andrews Labor government has a strong track record of investing in the health of our waterways.

2020 saw us announce over $220 million in funding across four years to continue the work of improving the health of our catchments across regional Victoria.

This year’s budget saw us go further, with an additional $24.5 million over three years to deliver initiatives like the environmental works programs to protect and restore eight flagship waterways, including the Yarra River, which borders the Northcote electorate.

It also includes a coordinated program of action to improve the health of the Gippsland Lakes, working across community groups, traditional owners and other regional delivery partners, and implementing management actions for Ramsar wetlands. These are wetlands of international importance, and there are 12 of these sites in Victoria.

Building on this work, the amendments contained in this bill will help ensure the right structures are in place to support our work to protect the health of these catchments in the long term.

For the last 20 years, the Victorian Catchment Management Council has played the leading role in achieving these goals.

This bill allows for the establishment of a new model of catchment management in which advisory committees can provide targeted, place-based catchment advice when needed.

This new structure has already shown itself to be a success through the Victorian government’s work on the Yarra River Action Plan, which responded to recommendations from an independent ministerial advisory committee.

The model allows for targeted and specific advice to feed into the management of our waterways, and another benefit is that it enables self-determined participation by traditional owners.

In addition to strengthening our ability to protect the health of our vital water catchments, this bill will also deliver improved transparency and compliance measures for our water markets.

The community and irrigators have been calling for more publicly available information on water ownership and trading.

This bill makes it easier to find information on our largest water owners and makes it easier to uncover evidence of anti-competitive behaviour or market distortions.

We are also clarifying the powers to regulate the place, rate and time of taking water.

Our amendments will deliver an improved framework for managing the growing challenges faced in the Murray River and other major river systems when it comes to delivering water.

Over the past couple of decades the Murray system has experienced significant change, and while shortfalls and restrictions are rare, the risk of them occurring is increasing.

Responding to these challenges, we are delivering a stronger framework to manage water delivery, particularly during times when shortfalls occur, that truly reflects the environmental, physical and operational constraints of our water systems.

This includes improving the ability of the minister to respond quickly and effectively, when shortages occur, to share available water fairly.

Critically, these changes will act both to protect existing rights and the environment while also giving irrigators the tools to manage their own risks if a shortfall occurs.

We’re also delivering stronger compliance and enforcement provisions to prevent water theft and uphold the integrity of our water system.

As irrigation businesses increasingly move from smaller family operations to large corporate entities who are less likely to be deterred by smaller penalties, it is more important than ever that we strengthen penalties and send a strong message that there is zero tolerance for those taking more than their fair share.

One of the other main changes proposed in this bill relates to ensuring we have the resources and structures in place to ensure water remains affordable for households.

This includes through formalising the integration of Western Water and City West Water.

While Victoria is already fortunate to have the cheapest water bills in the country, rapid population growth in Melbourne’s west has placed additional pressure on infrastructure, leading to higher costs associated with meeting the needs of new developments.

The merger of these two entities will ensure this region has the infrastructure and other resources it needs to meet demand and reduce household bills along the way.

Indeed, residents in Melbourne’s outer west can expect to be $500 better off per year over the next decade as a result of this merger.

Critically, this change will not only deliver water security and ease cost of living pressures, it will also help grow regional jobs.

The Andrews Labor government have been proactive in listening to our communities and acknowledging the very real challenges posed by our growing population and our changing climate.

Victoria’s climate is changing, with the climate science telling us our state will become warmer and drier in coming decades. As we lead the nation in implementing landmark measures to reduce emissions, decarbonise our economy and address climate change, water security will continue to be pivotal.

The health, sustainability, reliability and affordability of our state’s water resources—though complex—are intrinsically important to all Victorians, regardless of whether you live in the inner city or in our regions.

I commend this bill to the house.