The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) has improved its asset management practices since 2018 according to the Auditor-General who revisited an earlier report he delivered in that year.
In his 2022 report Follow-up of Protecting Victoria’s Coastal Assets, Auditor-General, Andrew Greaves examined DELWP’s progress implementing the recommendations of the 2018 report Protecting Victoria’s Coastal Assets.
“Our 2018 Protecting Victoria’s Coastal Assets (our 2018 audit) concluded that the agencies responsible for Victoria’s coastal protection assets (CPAs) were not adequately managing them or protecting them from current and future coastal hazards,” Mr Greaves said.
“It called for more Statewide oversight of CPAs and the risks they face, and more support for coastal managers in the form of asset management skills, and climate change adaptation guidance and resourcing,” he said.
“Based on the evidence we obtained, nothing has come to our attention that DELWP has not addressed our recommendations for collection and management of CPA data and coastal hazard and risk assessment.”
Mr Greaves said DELWP had also improved its asset management practices.
However, he said the Department needed to do further work to address recommendations related to oversight of coastal managers and developing a sustainable funding model.
“DELWP has made significant progress addressing our recommendation to improve the way it collects CPA data,” the Auditor-General said.
“While funding challenges continue, DELWP has made progress in costing CPAs’ values and maintenance requirements,” he said.
“Since 2018 DELWP has made considerable progress in monitoring Victorian coasts and assessing the hazards they face.”
Mr Greaves said this work had improved the quality of DELWP’s coastal hazard data and helped fill knowledge gaps about the future risks of climate change on CPAs.
The Auditor-General’s 25-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
