Western Grassland Reserve
Tim READ (Brunswick) (14:21): My question is for the environment minister. Victoria has already lost 99 per cent of volcanic plains grasslands, habitat for endangered species like the legless lizard and the earless dragon. Labor promised to buy 15,000 hectares by 2020 but only bought 10 per cent. Since 2021 developers have ripped up around 60 hectares of diminishing grasslands earmarked for the Western Grassland Reserve. The developers either do not think they will be caught or are happy to cop a few-hundred-thousand-dollar fine knowing they will make millions down the track. Five years after missing their deadline, how could Labor have let this happen to the Western Grassland Reserve?
Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (14:22): I may be wrong, but I do not think I am. I think this is the first time the Greens political party has asked the Minister for Environment a question in this Parliament. They are too busy going on about Gaza and Israel to worry about the environment. The true environment party is the Australian Labor Party. But it is an important question. We are really proud of the work around the MSA, and that was effectively a decision made well before this government but that this government has continued to implement, which is effectively allowing the growth of Melbourne through a federal agreement, through protecting a large parcel of important land called the Melbourne strategic assessment.
The member raises an issue about the progress towards that purchase. We are doing it yearly. When the opportunity arises we are doing it yearly, and that is effectively what the public would expect. It is incremental. It is a long-term plan. We are absolutely committed to implementing it, and we are committed to the protection of the volcanic plain grasslands and every other special part of this beautiful land, including the outrageous, egregious example the other day at Olivers Hill, in which the member for Frankston was fantastic in putting public pressure on that individual, because we made it very clear through the member for Frankston that there was no chance that public beaches will be privatised no matter how much money you have. The same applies for anyone who damages public land and does not completely observe all the special requirements that we have around protecting that.
The issue, though, for the member for Brunswick is that our plan is a long-term plan. I do not think you can make an assessment on it year to year. You can over a longer period. We have invested in excess of $600 million for biodiversity protection right around Victoria through pest and weed control, through maintaining Crown land and coastal land and through maintaining the very land that the member is talking about, and we will continue to do that.
Tim READ (Brunswick) (14:25): I thank the minister for his answer. Given what has happened recently with developers destroying some of that land, clearly our laws are failing to protect these endangered ecosystems. For three years Labor has sat on both the independent review of the Wildlife Act and the parliamentary inquiry into ecosystem decline without doing anything. We know that the Wildlife Act and the related Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act need to be totally updated. If we had good laws, we would not have just lost 60 hectares of critically endangered grasslands. Will Labor urgently update our biodiversity laws to protect threatened wildlife and habitat?
The SPEAKER: I ask the member for Brunswick to rephrase his question to make it about government administration.
Tim READ: Will the Labor government urgently update our biodiversity laws to protect threatened wildlife and habitat?
Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (14:26): I thank the member for his question, and I do recognise that it comes from a good place, but it is actually incorrect. The assessment he draws between what happened and the laws is incorrect. There are very strong laws already. We are still investigating that example that transpired over the last fortnight, but I do not think you can make an assessment, member for Brunswick, of the laws that exist. We are in the process of forming the government’s response to the Wildlife Act review, but we have not sat on our hands. As I said, we have had in excess of $600 million of investment in biodiversity protection right through the Victorian landscape over the last 10 years and we are doing work every single day. We are working to a cause, whether it be biodiversity protection or climate change mitigation measures that protect the environment. We look for opportunities to strengthen the laws. We have strengthened the EPA and the general environmental duty right across Victoria. We have got more work to do; I accept that.