Tuesday, 2 August 2022

North East Water

Mr TILLEY (Benambra) (19:20): (6464) I wish to raise a matter for the Minister for Water in the other place, and the action I seek is for the minister to fast-track planning and preparatory works for North East Water to meet the demands for water and sewerage in and around Wodonga, Wangaratta, Tangambalanga, Bright, Mount Beauty and so forth. Whilst I have got your attention, we have the main pumping station—the number one pumping station—at capacity in Wodonga. It no longer meets EPA standards. We have trunk sewer lines that need to be bolstered and others that need to be created. There are decade-old plans that promise these works by 2018, but here we are more than four years later, and as I understand it there is not even a detailed design for some of this work.

In Wodonga’s designated growth corridor this infrastructure requirement was locked down in part of the precinct structure plan that has been in place for years. Why is this important? Well, the flow-on effect—all puns intended—is that without these sewerage lines, the release of new land for housing lots is stymied. At a time when affordable housing is such an issue, the potential for delays for hundreds of new homes is absolutely appalling. This of course flows downhill to the building industry and jobs, and the impasse at the sewerage pumping station also has impacts on industry, with plans for the expansion of the Wodonga abattoir and Mars pet food manufacturer, two of the biggest employers in Wodonga alone, which will likely add further pressure to the system. Developers have been offered a temporary solution, with sewerage holding tanks to be buried 6 metres underground. It is at their cost, but I am tipping that, too, will flow downhill to the first home owner. This is infrastructure that is the responsibility of North East Water.

Wodonga is not on its Pat Malone. As I mentioned earlier, Tangambalanga has become a dormitory settlement of Albury-Wodonga, with booming land sales. That, too, is on hold while North East Water plays catch-up to meet the demands of an anticipated further 2000 lots. Thirty million dollars was included in the budget, but it is probably somewhere like eight years off.

Outside my patch, in Wangaratta—as I earlier mentioned, Wangaratta and Bright—I recently met with the new chief executive of North East Water, Jo Murdoch, and her planning and infrastructure executive, Rebecca Johnston, who provided assurance they could get this back on track. But some of the estimates to get back on track are sitting upwards of $150 million and perhaps even more than $200 million. The question is simply: does North East Water have the capacity, resources and skill set to manage so many critical and time-sensitive projects? How did it get to this point? I do not want to hear about unprecedented growth. The Wodonga growth corridor plan was clearly put under the onus of North East Water a decade ago, and the water authority sets its own key milestones that on the face of it it failed to meet. This has happened on your watch, and it is incumbent on you now to take every step to get North East Water out of the S-H-1-T-hole.