Tuesday, 12 November 2024

 Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (13:41): I just want to acknowledge the many people who have written to me from across the state and from overseas who are frustrated by the Labor state government’s decision to close rock climbing routes at Mount Arapiles. Not very long ago Premier Jacinta Allan addressed the Herald Sun bush summit in Bendigo, and she said:

That’s why today I want to be very clear as Premier and as a proud country Victorian I won’t be putting a padlock on our public forests. It’s not who I am. It’s not what I believe in.

Yet what we have seen is the complete opposite – a world-class site, nature-based tourism at its best, closed without any prior engagement with the regional communities or industries that will be devastated by this decision. Cultural heritage is put forward as the basis for this decision, yet they will not release the documentation behind it, and that is just the tip of the mountain. Time and again we see no notice, no right of appeal, no transparency and no accountability. This is a state government in freefall, and Labor cannot be trusted. The next state election is November 2026 – just 100 weeks away – and it cannot come soon enough.