Who Speaks for the Coast? A New Submission from the Coastal Waterways and Wetlands Alliance
Across Victoria, coastal and estuarine systems are under increasing pressure. Erosion is accelerating. Flood and inundation risks are intensifying. Wetlands are being squeezed between rising seas and expanding development.
At the same time, the institutional structures responsible for protecting these environments are changing and in some cases, being removed altogether.
The Coastal Waterways and Wetlands Alliance (CWWA), part of the broader Concerned Waterways Alliance network, has prepared a detailed submission examining the question of:
Who speaks for the coast when independent oversight is removed?
This submission responds to the abolition of the Victorian Marine and Coastal Council (VMCC) in 2026, previously the state’s only independent advisory body dedicated to marine and coastal issues. Its removal raises concern not simply about the entity itself, but about the broader capacity of the planning system to understand and respond to coastal risk.
The submission identifies a growing disconnect between where coastal expertise sits within government and where planning decisions are made. It shows how this disconnect is already translating into on-ground outcomes where decisions being made without adequate coastal hazard assessment, without consideration of long-term environmental change, and without a consistent framework to guide them.
Drawing on examples from across the state from Inverloch and Silverleaves to McCrae, Port Fairy and the Gippsland Lakes, the submission demonstrates that these concerns are not isolated but present as a broader systemic issue.
They reflect a planning framework that does not yet have what the submission terms “coastal competence”, the institutional ability to integrate coastal science into decision-making, and to act on it consistently.
The submission then sets out six specific policy gaps, including:
- the absence of property-level coastal hazard mapping in planning schemes
- stormwater standards that do not reflect estuarine environments
- buffer frameworks designed for rivers but applied to tidal systems
- a lack of planning mechanisms to account for habitat retreat under sea level rise
- and the absence of effective oversight when coastal risks are assessed
These gaps are not new but the the concern is the removal of independent advisory capacity means there is now no clear mechanism to close them.
The submission attempts to outline a practical reform agenda focused on integrating coastal science into planning controls, strengthening referral processes, and re-establishing independent regional expertise with a formal role in decision-making.
Coastal risks are long-term, cumulative, and often irreversible once development occurs. Decisions made today—about setbacks, drainage, or subdivision will shape outcomes for decades.
Without the right structures in place, those decisions risk being made incrementally, inconsistently, and without a full understanding of their consequences.
The full submission is available below as a downloadable document. It is intended as both a contribution to the current policy discussion and a practical framework for strengthening how Victoria plans for its coastal future.