The Minister for NDIS and Government Services and local Member for Maribyrnong Bill Shorten called on Melbourne Water to take immediate action to address widespread community concerns following the reclassification of Kensington Banks as a high-risk flood zone.
The reclassification affects approximately 900 homes and over 2,000 residents in the area.
About 200 impacted residents attended a community forum at Kensington Town Hall on Tuesday night, and were outraged senior Melbourne Water representatives had not turned up.
"Melbourne Water was reluctant to join the meeting because they thought this was political. Of course it's political," Minister Shorten said.
"Why Melbourne Water think it's beneath them to want to send someone senior smacks to me of arrogance and I'm filthy about it. And it's just not the way I expect people to behave, especially when they're the ones who sprung a surprise on us."
The community is concerned homes will become uninsurable in coming years, despite property owners buying into the area in good faith and on the best advice of the existing flood modelling.
Minister Shorten reassured the meeting they had his support and was working hard with his political colleagues to put pressure on Melbourne Water.
"No one here has done anything wrong at all. You haven't taken any risks. You went in, eyes open. It's just the facts have changed in front of you. Now, that's a problem. But that's not on you."
Federal Member for Fraser Daniel Mulino and State Member for Melbourne Ellen Sandell joined representatives from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Insurance Council of Australia to hear from concerned residents regarding the lack of transparency with Melbourne Water's tender process for mitigation planning, and the lack of consistent communication as to what steps can be taken by residents to address their individual changes in circumstance.
Minister Shorten said if it wasn't for the Victoria Water Minister Harriet Shing, intervening, Melbourne Water representatives would not have attended at the last minute to take notes at the meeting.
"Senior Melbourne Water representatives, who had the least distance to travel, couldn't' turn up and give an accounting of their actions to a public meeting. It's really disgraceful," Minister Shorten said.
"Getting Melbourne Water to be transparent shouldn't be a game of hide and seek where they hide what they're doing and the residents have to seek out that information."
"Melbourne Water do themselves no favours. If they're actually working furiously behind the scenes, then they need to tell us and also the study options need to be transparent. The underpinning, whoever is going to do it, I just want it done. But you need to be able to deconstruct it and see if they've considered all the innovations, all the options, and it needs to be very bottom up. People have got to see what's going on within the Insurance Council engagement as well. But I think it's reasonable to say, what's the timeline? Where's the advisory board?" Minister Shorten told the meeting.
Initial community consultation began in April of this year, with Melbourne Water indicating that they are currently completing detailed assessments of long-term, sustainable mitigation options. However, Melbourne Water's failure to provide a clear timeline for the tendering of contracts to develop these strategies has caused growing anxiety among affected community members.
"I do want Melbourne Water to feel more urgency. If there's a statutory body in this country who will only meet on their terms, then they're kidding themselves," Minister Shorten concluded.
