COASTAL COMMUNITIES’ EROSION CRISIS RAISED IN PARLIAMENT

INDEPENDENT Lyne MP Rob Oakeshott has again called on the Commonwealth to work with state and local governments on coastal erosion.
In an address to parliament last night, Mr Oakeshott said coastal erosion was much more than just an environmental story.
“It is a human story… of homeowners desperate to save their properties,” he said.
“In the past week, the coastline in my electorate has taken a battering and some beaches are almost unrecognisable.
“There is significant community angst about what will happen to private property, public infrastructure and the long-term outlook for entire neighbourhoods.
“As homeowners and businesses try to cope with the stress of a natural disaster unfolding before them, there is one question that needs answering: how on earth are local ratepayers expected to hold the line on their own?”
Mr Oakeshott highlighted the work of the Old Bar Sand Replenishment Group and its campaign for erosion mitigation measures at Old Bar, but, he said, the simple truth was that the council did not have the wherewithal to go it alone.
“This is a message I’ve delivered time and again in this place, since becoming the federal member in 2008 and yet I share my community’s frustrations that despite the enormous economic, environmental and social costs attached to coastal erosion, we are no closer today to a cooperative strategy involving all three levels of government than we were four years ago.
“When I started on this journey with Old Bar residents in 2008, the Commonwealth was not engaged at all on this issue.
“We’ve had cause for small celebrations since, such as federal funding towards the cost of a feasibility study into an offshore reef at Old Bar, however, despite the numerous warnings from the science community, despite the thousands of words in reports, studies and planning documents recommending action, my community, and many others, see little to no evidence of a working relationship developing between federal, state and local government of this issue.
“If the threat to property was from fire or flood, we’d have a strategy; we’d have a back-up plan, and we’d have allocated resources to deal with the issue.
“The response to this natural disaster should be no different,” Mr Oakeshott said.