Labor’s climate inaction leaves regional communities at risk
The Nationals have released a Minority Report to the Climate Resilience Inquiry, exposing the Allan Labor Government’s failure to deliver practical, community-led climate adaptation across coastal Victoria.
While regional Victorians battle worsening coastal erosion, unaffordable housing, and stretched emergency services, the Allan Labor Government is bogged down in needless roadblocks, offering nothing but delays, excuses and more tax.
Overlapping environmental regulations are stalling housing, inflating costs, and pushing home ownership further out of reach.
The report identified five major failures:
- Coastal erosion: Communities are facing worsening erosion with no clear action or funding from the government.
- Planning and building reform: Uncoordinated regulations and unfunded mandates are choking housing supply and leaving councils unable to meet infrastructure demands.
- Agriculture and renewables: Farmers are being excluded from planning decisions and no recycling plan for renewable infrastructure.
- Building back better: Councils are forced to rebuild damaged infrastructure to outdated standards, risking repeat failures and wasted public money.
- Emergency services tax: The emergency services tax is a politicised tax grab, slugging $3 billion from Victorians with no guarantee of frontline support.
The Nationals’ Member for Eastern Victoria Region, Melina Bath, said the Allan Labor Government is all talk and no action.
“Bass Coast, Gippsland and the Great Ocean Road urgent real solutions – protection from erosion, affordable housing, and infrastructure that can withstand future disasters – not more reports out of step with the urgency required,” said Ms Bath.
“Coastal communities are watching as erosion threatens their infrastructure and public safety—government reports remain incomplete and out of step with the urgency required. We need action—not more studies.
The Nationals are calling for:
- A coordinated coastal erosion strategy
- Planning reform to support housing affordability
- Transparent disaster recovery funding
- Protection of landholder rights in renewable energy projects
- Fuel reduction targets aligned with the Bushfire Royal Commission
Ms Bath urged the Allan Labor Government to act now.
“We’ve put forward practical, community-led solutions. The only thing standing in the way is Labor’s obsession with red tape over results,” said Ms Bath.
“The layers of bureaucracy are ultimately just crippling any decision-making and paralysing any action moving forward.”
The Nationals stand for practical, community-led climate resilience – with fuel reduction targets, infrastructure built back better, and planning reform that supports, not punishes Victorians.
It’s time the Allan Labor Government move on from bureaucracy to immediate action.
A copy of the report can be found here.
