Coast reports buried by poll

By Michael Giles

IT’S government administration at its worst, surely.

The organisation charged with the responsibility of dealing with Inverloch’s coastal erosion crisis has declined to release “the full suite of Stage 1 Reports” it promised would be “released soon” almost a month ago.

They’ve allegedly been signed off, ready to go for months.

Using the pre-election ‘Caretaker’ rules, which started at 6pm on Tuesday, November 1, for cover, the State Government-appointed Inverloch Regional and Strategic Partnership group (RaSP), has told the Sentinel-Times that it is now “limited in what we can share at this time.”

Compounding the unfathomable nature of the announcement is that the RaSP had already released four summaries taken from these same reports, back on October 12 (they were promised in mid-August).

The process of releasing the reports had in effect commenced.

In answer to questions from the Sentinel-Times last week about when the “full suite of reports” would be released as promised, Project Manager for the Cape-to-Cape Resilience Project, Cassandra Philippou, confirmed they would no longer be released prior to the election.

“As you know, the government is now in caretaker period so we are limited in what we can share at this time. The intention now is for the reports to be released as soon as possible after the incoming government is sworn into office.”

The hazard assessments technical reports developed in Stage 1 comprise seven reports, including an executive summary, extending to 776 pages including appendices.

Additional reports for the project, comprise another 268 pages in total.

Crucial remedial work, outlined in the summaries, and presumably in the full reports, will now be further delayed.

These include the annual relocation of between 75,000 and 100,000m3 of sand to set up a “sacrificial” beach to stop further erosion of the last-remaining dunes which separate Cape Paterson-Inverloch Road (Bunurong Road) from the sea.

The influential South Gippsland Conservation Society (SGCS) has called for all candidates in the election to commit to funding interim dune renourishment works that they say need to be completed at Inverloch Surf Beach in early 2023.

“Based on our investigations, interim funding of at least $1M is needed to extend the recent Parks Victoria renourishment work to protect the Wreck Creek and Flat Rocks coastline,” said the group in response to information in the Stage 1 summaries.

SGCS President Ed Thexton said: “As acknowledged in the summaries, the vegetated dunes currently shield adjoining residences from storm surge events. It doesn’t make any sense not to act now to protect those valuable remaining dunes. If we wait any longer, there may not be anything left to save by the time that the final strategy is in place.”

As well as calling for the release of the full suite of Stage 1 reports, the SGCS has urged the project team to complete Stage 2 of its investigations as soon as possible to allow “finally-agreed action to be costed, funded and implemented without further significant delay.”

However, the decision to delay the release of the full hazard assessment and adaption reports appears to be at odds with the government’s own guidelines for handling government business in the lead up to and during the 2022 State election period.

The over-riding rule is that “the business of government and public administration continues throughout the caretaker period”.

For the government of the day, it means they can’t implement major policy decisions, make significant appointments, or enter into major contracts and undertakings.

The public sector, according to the guidelines, must be apolitical but it should also get on with it.

“Generally, the public sector should continue to perform its ordinary and routine functions during the caretaker period.”

An exception to this might be if their normal actions could be seen as controversial or political in the context of the election.

However, while the guidelines say, “public sector bodies should assess whether any of their ordinary functions (e.g. distributing information about progress on the implementation of government policies) may need to be performed differently during the caretaker period”, this guideline doesn’t appear to relate to the work of the Inverloch RaSP because their findings have not yet been adopted as government policy.

The guidelines also say that the public sector can add material to their websites during the caretaker period provided that, “it is either purely factual or relates to existing policies and programs”.

As the first organisation of its kind to be created under the Marine and Coastal Act 2018, the Inverloch RaSP was gazetted on August 6, 2020, bringing together Traditional Owners and nine agencies, to work with the community to address ongoing and future coastal erosion and inundation impacts, principally at Inverloch, exacerbated by climate change.

The following agencies and entities are represented on the RaSP:

• Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation (BLCAC)

• Bass Coast Shire Council (BCSC)

• Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) (lead agency)

• Department of Transport (DOT)

• Gippsland Ports

• Heritage Victoria

• Parks Victoria (PV)

• South Gippsland Shire Council (SGSC)

• South Gippsland Water (SGW); and

• West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (WGCMA).