Ms JENNY AITCHISON (Maitland) (17:27): Tonight as I speak about flooding in Maitland I will refer to some of the substantial issues that the people of my electorate are still facing. Before I deal in detail with flooding, I extend my heartfelt thanks to all of the people of my community who stepped up during the floods and who include, of course, all our emergency service workers and volunteers. But I especially thank people who do normal jobs that are not related to emergency services and who went above and beyond. They were truly inspiring. At another time I will take the time to thank them. I also hope that people in my community will nominate them for local community hero awards, which will be appropriate recognition for them.

The subject I wish to discuss in detail was mentioned during question time today when the member for Upper Hunter asked a question that was directed to the Minister for Lands and Water about flood mitigation. The Minister referred to the Hunter Valley Flood Mitigation Scheme and some funding, which was very interesting because I asked a question of that Minister, the Premier, the Treasurer and the Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience in a letter dated 3 August which followed a letter dated 28 July. The nub of the issue is that during recent flood events in Maitland we suffered significant damage to the levee banks in and around Maitland, notably at Pitnacree, Horseshoe Bend and Cultivation Road at South Maitland.

A text message was sent out about the Cultivation Road event to 53,000 people, which indicates there was a lot of community concern about that. There was an error in that message and it should not have been sent to people in Lorn because, if it had been sent to the people in Lorn on the northern side of the river and people in South Maitland at the same time, it is a show stopper flood and everyone in Maitland is underwater. But that error aside, there were real concerns about the flood event. I congratulate all the people who worked on that—people like Andrew McIntyre from the Hunter Valley Flood Mitigation Scheme for whom I hold special regard because he was available to our community throughout the flood period by mobile. It was a level of support that was unprecedented in my experience over the past seven years as a member of Parliament.

I asked the Premier, the Minister for Water and Lands, the Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience and the Treasurer when they were going to do something about the flood mitigation scheme. I have been asking for a flood plan for Maitland to be updated from the 2013 edition, so prior to the 2015 super storms and prior to the time when we had about 20,000 or 30,000 people in Maitland whereas now we have 90,000 people, but it was just complete crickets from the Government side of the House. In the briefing I had with the Premier at the Emergency Operations Centre during the floods, they talked about $50 million worth of backdated flood works required from the March 2021 event—over 15 months ago. By the Minister answering the question, which came from all of my correspondence to the member for Upper Hunter, what we learnt today is that the announcement made by the member for Upper Hunter with my local mayor after all this correspondence was that that $50 million that was announced as additional funding was actually from the budget.

The Government made an announcement before the flood in the budget period—over eight years—and now it is trying to say that the amount has been allocated in response to significant breaches of the levee. I want the Premier and the Minister for Lands and Water to come back to me directly as the local member for these areas, as a matter of courtesy and as a matter of appropriate parliamentary practice and good governance, and explain what additional funding will be provided to my community to address the funding issues. It is not just the $50 million from the March event; there was damage worth tens of millions of dollars in the November 2021 floods, which was not recognised by this Government because it does not have an up-to-date flood plan; then there was the March event of this year and the more recent event we just had.

We cannot afford to play politics with flood in our community. Maitland was the home and the start of the State Emergency Service [SES] in 1955. That over $800 million flood mitigation scheme asset deserves to be treated with respect, completed and fixed to preserve the safety and lives of everyone in my community.