This week’s AGM gave us the opportunity to hear from Kat Theophanous – State Labor Member for Northcote.

Her first update was regarding the long standing issue of the Riverfront, and the most central challenge, exactly how will it be publicly owned.

Kat has been working with APMAG for many years on this issue, but there is still no clear path to ownership. In July she met with Glenville, who committed to EPA compliant remediation.

They will fix it, but who will own it then? Will it vest and be owned by the State or Local government. The 2 parties have been negotiating for a long time at a senior level on the issue, bit don’t have an answer.

Senior executives at the State Department of Environment, Land, water and Planning – DELWP – have the position that Yarra should manage it, because they manage the existing park, and the two should be managed together. Another candidate group, Parks Victoria, may in fact be the most likely group to step forward.

Yarra wants the state to manage it.

Kat has been working to escalate to get a resolution & has reached out to Minister Neville (Minister for Water) about the damage & Minster d’Ambrosio (State Minister for the Environment, Energy & Climate Change) to get action. The Deputy Secretary of the DELWP  has written to council to argue for Yarra to own and manage the riverfront. Yarra hasn’t responded yet.

At the end of the day, who ever owns it will have to look after it – and therefore find the budget – hence the hot potato routine.

Glenville is saying they can’t properly rehabilitate the riverfront until they know who the final owner will be, and what that owner wants. In the mean time the problem – and the bill everyone is so worried about – gets bigger.

It’s a literal bureaucratic nightmare. Kat is in there working on it, and it sounds like dry work… but ultimately, no fresh hope was forthcoming.

Contamination – Glenville’s case to stall is a “cop out”

None of the parties have been making any real progress on the most urgent issue – contamination – while the ownership remains unresolved.

Kat’s point is that Glenville’s argument – that their hands are tied – is a cop out.

Asbestos is asbestos. Industrial waste is industrial waste. Any public body – local, state or otherwise – is going to need the contamination removed and basic levels of safety restored.

Similarly, regardless of which body ultimately manages the land, it remains Glenville’s responsibility to do that rehabilitation. Knowing the final owner does not change what is cleaned, how its cleaned, or why its cleaned, so there is no reason it is having such a big impact on when its cleaned.

Delay isn’t making the job easier, or cheaper – and as the recent rains have shown, doing it badly just means doing it again.