Following the recent unprecedented storm impact on South Gippsland Shire, especially Mirboo North, mayor Clare Williams and CEO Kerryn Ellis visited Melbourne on Tuesday to advocate to a range of key government representatives for additional storm assistance for the shire.
The pair were seeking further support for waste collection services for impacted residents, clean up assistance, and relief hubs to help the South Gippsland region prepare and respond to future emergency events.
Relief hubs are seen as vital to enable communities to access vital needs during a crisis, including information, charging for devices and satellite internet, with council identifying the need for multiple relief hubs in South Gippsland.
South Gippsland Shire Council has also stressed to the Victorian Government the need to simplify the methodology and data inputs required in Victoria to prove council’s eligibility for Disaster Recovery Funding.
The need for funding for damaged community infrastructure not covered under Disaster Recovery Funding was also noted, such as rail trails and Mirboo North’s Bath Road Reserve and Baromi Park.
The mayor and CEO also attended question time, during which Premier Jacinta Allan reflected on her Friday visit to Mirboo North.
“The Premier mentioned Clare and me by name and spoke at length about Mirboo North as part of her responses in question time,” Ms Ellis said, the council CEO seeing that as a positive message that the government’s focus is on Mirboo North and South Gippsland more broadly.
Mayor Williams and Ms Ellis met with Minister Melissa Horne (Local Government and Roads and Road Safety), Minister Gabrielle Williams (Government Services and Public and Active Transport), Minister Jaclyn Symes (Emergency Services), Minister Gayle Tierney (Regional Development), Minister Harriet Shing (Water and Housing) and Minister Natalie Suleyman (Small Business).
“The overarching theme was that we were in town talking to the government about support for storm recovery in the whole shire, but Mirboo North in particular,” Ms Ellis said.
“Our biggest ask was support with management of waste.”
Ms Ellis elaborated on what was discussed with the various ministers.
Minister Horne heard requests for support with waste removal for the community, and reimbursement of costs to council incurred in receiving waste free of charge.
“We haven’t charged the community but there’s a significant cost to council,” Ms Ellis said.
“We also asked for a recovery package of support for council and the community.”
Minister Williams heard about telecommunications concerns.
“We spoke to her about the fact that when the power goes down, mobile connectivity goes down as well and for a lot of people it’s actually worse not to have mobile connection than power.”
Ms Ellis said it was stressed that community was without access to triple zero for a period of time, presenting risks.
With the State Government having on Monday announced an independent review into power connection, the mayor and CEO called for that review to include telecommunications, a suggestion Minister Williams agreed with.
A couple of key issues were raised with Minister Symes.
“We spoke to her about the cleanup package and support for waste removal, which she said they are well advanced on organising and should be announcing in the next day or two, and we also spoke to her about getting funding to have some recovery officers employed by council to support the recovery over the next 12 or 18 months,” Ms Ellis said.
The need for support for businesses impacted by the storm event was raised with Minister Tierney, particularly small businesses and farms and agribusinesses.
That entailed a request for welfare support as well as funding support for business.
Minister Suleyman was receptive to a request to supply a mobile business support unit that can visit impacted towns in times of crisis.
Ms Ellis is hopeful that request will be met within the next week.
Minister Shing heard about concerns regarding water supply resilience.
“We spoke to her about support for making sure that water infrastructure is secured and quickly restored in times of emergency because there was a period of time last week Mirboo North didn’t have water either,” CEO Ellis said.
The mayor and CEO acknowledged Tom McIntosh, Upper House Member for Eastern Victoria, for his assistance during their Melbourne advocacy visit and his ongoing support for the South Gippsland region.
“We would also like to thank all the Ministers for taking the time to meet with us today. The genuine concern expressed for our region and communities is appreciated,” the pair stated.