Tuesday, 26 November 2024

Gold prospecting

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (19:25): (1316) My adjournment matter concerns the fabulous activity of gold prospecting. Prospecting and fossicking is a wonderful recreation which gets people outdoors to enjoy the natural world and brings great benefits to their physical and mental health. Thousands of Victorians enjoy the activity. It creates a connection with the land and produces committed custodians of the country explored. For some it is a holiday activity but for many more it is a serious hobby, an essential part of their identity. Prospectors are passionate about what they do and desperate to pass it on to their children. In the bush, in state forests and on private land, they dig carefully and pan respectfully, and they want to pass on the meaning and joy prospecting brings to the lives of their children. After all, gold is what put Victoria on the map. Certainly Bendigo and Ballarat owe everything to it, as do many of the grand buildings in marvellous Melbourne which we still see today, including this one. It is hard to think of a mass participation activity more central to Victoria’s development, and it is still open to us today and enjoyed by thousands.

You might expect that given its history in our state, the health benefits it brings and the impact it has on our economy and regional towns, the state government would be quick to promote this activity. Instead, it is the opposite. We have heard in recent weeks the threat of national park extensions, with their further default restrictions. Expanded exemptions under section 7 of the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act 1990 are another blow. I have always strongly argued that public spaces belong to all Victorians, and I oppose unwarranted efforts to restrict access to and enjoyment of Crown or private land in Victoria. The government’s hostile attack on rock climbers has reached new heights in recent weeks. I worry the same is happening with prospectors, with the same lack of justification. Large-scale mining is permitted, despite industrial-scale environmental damage, when royalties are payable to government. But hobbyists who create no environmental threat whatsoever – in fact who often clean up the land they visit – are threatened.

The action I seek, Minister, is a clarification of whether prospecting is permitted on private land exempted under section 7 of the act, statistics demonstrating the area of land exempted over the last decade and a review of whether these decisions can be reversed.