By Parker McKenzie
A federal committee is seeking the public’s point of view before commencing public hearings about the implication of severe weather events on Australia’s road networks.
The Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport will hold the hearings for an inquiry into the implications of severe weather events on the national, regional, rural and remote road network with written submissions closing on 28 February.
Chair of the Committee Luke Gosling OAM said the hearing is an “opportunity to hear from Austroads about the effects of climate change and natural disasters on the national road network, and the role of the Austroads Guides in promoting a national approach to best practice road design to enhance infrastructure resiliency and support our communities and industries.”
The hearings will explore planning, engineering and construction standards to strengthen road resiliency across the country, with the opening public hearing occurring on Thursday 16 February.
Casey MP Aaron Violi said the committee is an example of bipartisanship of parliament and the work they’re doing is supported by all sides in federal politics.
“It’s a great way we can look at detail into something that’s a significant issue here in Casey but also across the nation,” he said.
“It’s looking at severe weather events as a broad area, which includes bushfires but obviously flood is very topical for us here given the experiences of locals last year.”
In late October, flash flooding caused damage to roads around the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, with road slips appearing throughout the region.
Karen Kestigan from the Kallista Floodwatch Group said local roads are subject to flash flooding and it is becoming an increasingly worse issue.
“The human toll in all of this is incredible, there are a lot of elderly people who are affected by it,” she said.
“We’d definitely be interested in making a submission.”
The Floodwatch Group has previously approached the state, federal and local levels of government regarding issues regarding flooding caused by poor road conditions.
Mr Violi said Yarra Ranges Council has confirmed to him that it intends to make a submission.
“There’s a lot we need to do for local roads and this inquiry will play an important role,” he said.
“The first thing this government needs to do is to reinstate the 100 million dollars in funding that they ripped out of our community to seal roads for the Roads for Communities Program, they had bipartisan support for this program in 2019.”
How to make a submission and more information can be found at aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Regional_Development_Infrastructure_and_Transport/ResilientRoads
