Auditor-General issues coastal asset warning

A NEW report from the state’s Auditor-General has sounded a warning on coastal assets, and appears to support a significantly different management model for the Great Ocean Road.

The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office audited the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and five other agencies responsible for protecting coastal assets to produce its “Protecting Coastal Assets” report.

The audit examined whether natural and built assets on Victoria’s coastline were adequately protected against existing and future erosion and inundation hazards.

“A common theme in many of our audits that examine infrastructure is that agencies generally are not managing their assets as well as they need to,” the report concludes.

“This is the case for Victoria’s coastal assets – agencies are not managing their assets adequately to protect them from current and future hazards.

“There is a real risk, in the near future, of Victorians losing valued assets and infrastructure along the coast. This is partly because not all agencies have complete knowledge of all the assets for which they are accountable, or of the assets’ age and condition.

“Targeting of scarce funding also does not properly consider risks, and significant unfunded maintenance backlogs remain unaddressed.

“Compounding this, poorly integrated planning and fragmented responsibility for coastal assets across agencies of various sizes and capabilities works against a cohesive and strategic perspective.

“There is a strong case for more top-down management that takes a statewide view of our coastal assets, hazards and risks.

“While such an approach requires investment in a consolidated asset inventory, it would make it possible to eliminate the inconsistency in management approaches and practices across agencies.”

The Auditor-General’s report comes only weeks after the Great Ocean Road Taskforce released a governance issues paper, which noted there are 14 entities with some accountability towards the Great Ocean Road along its length.