Vic

As communities work diligently to recover from the recent flooding, local businesses are concerned that continuing forest closures are hampering the local economy’s recovery ... Further upstream, the Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh said despite the Moama Water Sport Club delaying the world’s biggest ski race until March 24-26 because of the floods, there is still no guarantee the banks of the Murray will have been reopened to the public. He says there is no reason beyond the usual government indifference, regional Victoria is “out of sight, out of mind.”

Harold Flett. So Donald had a well above average total of rainfall in the Spring of 2022. Official rainfall records inform us of 365mm for the months of August through to end of November. That is a considerable amount of rain in four months, resulting in many flooded roads, crops and a decent “run” down our local Richardson River ... The first real chance to have our town levees challenged since the erection of them in the years following the “one in a hundred” flood of January 2011.

The SA Liberals misguided opposition to voluntary water buybacks risks undermining South Australia’s position ahead of Friday’s Murray–Darling Basin  Ministerial Council meeting. A united South Australian position is crucial when dealing with the unwillingness of the NSW and Victorian governments to deliver the 450 gigalitres promised when the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was agreed to: Susan Close, SA Deputy Premier, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water (SA).

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) says people and industry must be at the centre of discussions during next week’s meeting of state and federal water ministers on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan ... “The MDBA’s report card doesn’t look at the impact on jobs, on food production and on communities that have resulted from water buybacks and broader Basin Plan implementation”: VFF President Emma Germano.

In 1855 the Royal Commission that examined the causes of the Eureka Stockade uprising recommended the establishment of Local Courts to make local mining by-laws and adjudicate local mining disputes. The Government appointed the chairmen of these Courts, but local miners elected the other members. The Local Courts were, therefore an early experiment in democracy.

The Liberal Member for Northern Victoria, Wendy Lovell, has used the first sitting week of State Parliament to blast the Victorian government on the current condition of roads in regional Victoria. Speaking during the adjournment debate to the new Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Melissa Horne, Ms Lovell described the condition of Victoria’s regional road network as “deplorable” and laid the blame squarely at the feet of Labor’s chronic underinvestment in road maintenance over the last eight years.