Flood mapping was a political issue at the 2024 Council Election, with multiple candidates spreading misinformation. Here’s how we highlighted and summarised the issue before the election:
Misinformation about flood mapping (from our Election 2024 page)
Flood mapping is an important issue for Streets Alive Yarra because flooding on our streets impacts on how people are able to move around our city, and how streets are designed to cope.
The state government flood enquiry report explained the urgent need to update flood mapping statewide, and to use this as a basis for revisions to planning schemes, such as via Special Building Overlays (SBOs), which inform prospective property purchasers or developers of the need to take likely flood levels into consideration when planning new buildings, and thus minimise the likelihood of future flood damage.
Stating that council’s proposed revisions to flood mapping are due to poor drain maintenance is misinformation because the state government flood report clearly states that “it is undeniable that climate change is intensifying weather events and increasing the risks we face living in this country ‘of droughts and flooding rains’.”, noting that “The increased flood risk identified by the new modelling will clearly be challenging for many in local communities to receive.” This isn’t an issue with council’s maintenance of drains, this is an issue with climate-change induced severe rainfall events that overwhelm even the best-maintained drainage system.
The state government report states “For government, one of the most critical roles going forward is accurately and honestly informing communities about risk”. Recommendation 18 states “that the Victorian Government introduce amendments…so that planning and other authorities must address climate change at all levels of the planning process.” The council officer report (9 July 2024) reflects this, stating “Council has a number of regulatory obligations regarding flood resilience. In order to fulfil these obligations and improve the community’s flood resilience, updated flood modelling and mapping has been prepared and a comprehensive way forward has been proposed to enable this to be embedded in decision making and advice to the community.”
Stating that the SBO will increase insurance premiums is also misinformation, as insurers already undertake independent flood modelling to assess risk and assist in setting premiums, and don’t use the SBO for that purpose.
- Stephen Jolly: “Insurance premiums will go through the roof, property values will drop and landlords will pass on costs to renters”, “rezone affected homes and then walk away”, “handball the problem to residents”
- Kenneth Gomez: “Council plans to re-zone these homes as subject to FLOOD RISK. HIGHER risk means HIGHER insurance costs”, “because council can’t be bothered or can’t afford to fix these drains, suddenly it becomes our responsibility”
- Sharon Harrison: “This flood risk is not from the Yarra River, but from Councils failing stormwater infrastructure”, “For many this overlay will mean an increase in insurance costs and a decrease in property values”, “pushing responsibility onto residents”
- Evangeline Aston: “This is the council’s way of shifting the risk of flooding from the council to property owners and residents”, “Shifting the risk to property owners has financial implications, like lowering property values, making renovations more expensive, increasing insurance premiums”
- Victoria Chipperfield: “Flood mapping that lowers the value of your properties and increases your insurance”, “putting the responsibilities and expenses on residents and rate payers”
- Theresa Saldanha: “Significant impact on property value & insurance”
After the election
After the election, on 26 November 2024, a majority of the new Council resolved to defer any decision to adopt a flood overlay.
2025 Planning Panel report
Half a year later, on 16 July 2025, Planning Panels Victoria released their report into neighbouring Merri-bek’s proposed flood overlay. The Planning Panel considered the objections from some residents, which were similar to the objections we heard in Yarra.
The Planning Panel recommended that council adopt the flood overlay, and noted:
- suggestions such as ‘maintaining and upgrading [the] drainage network’ are not relevant
- There is no legal obligation on councils (as local drainage authorities) to ensure no overland flows in a [flood] event.
- Designing a system that results in no overland flows… (or upgrading existing systems…) would be practically impossible without huge disruption to urban streets and private property. It would also be hugely costly, and well beyond the budgets of local councils.
- There is no evidence that [a flood overlay] impacts the value of a particular property.
Lessons for Yarra
In our opinion, the report from Planning Panel supports our assessment that candidates were spreading misinformation before the election, and that Council was wrong to defer their adoption of the overlay. Overall, the report supports the state government’s new approach that bypasses obstructive councils, i.e. for the Planning Minister to lead a streamlined adoption of flood-related planning scheme amendments. We encourage the new Council to learn from this example and in future to support evidence based policy.
Published 10 January 2025