Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Victorian Environmental Assessment Council

Assessment of the Values of State Forests in Eastern Victoria: Terms of Reference

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (17:23): I rise tonight to speak on the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council’s Assessment of the Values of State Forests in Eastern Victoria and indeed the Great Outdoors Taskforce. The Allan government, in its establishment of the Great Outdoors Taskforce and in addition to the so-called eminent panel, revealed very deeply flawed public land management. Launched in April 2024 by the Minister for Environment, the taskforce’s stated aim was to review the ‘1.5 million hectares of state forests previously managed for timber’, noting that the timber harvesting footprint included in that 1.5 million hectares the Central Highlands. It included it, and now what we see is that Minister Dimopoulos is deceitfully cutting out – excising and taking out – the Central Highlands from this discussion, in effect paving the way to locking up the Central Highlands.

When the minister states that there will be – and go and check the website – no large-scale change in land tenure inside the taskforce area, that is correct. That is East Gippsland and north-east Victoria, but it does not mean the Central Highlands. So what this is doing is it is conning the Victorian population. This is smoke and mirrors. The Minister for Environment is going to announce the great forest national park at a politically opportune time. There is no doubt about it. Adding another 350,000 hectares, including in areas in my electorate – Walhalla, Noojee – and then up to Buxton, Eildon, Healesville, Kinglake and Marysville – this great forest national park is about restricting traditional pursuits. It is about appeasing the Gucci Green voters. Jacinta Allan, the Premier, has said:

… as a proud country Victorian I won’t be putting a padlock on our public forests.

Premier, you might not put a padlock on them, but you are going to restrict access. You are going to restrict those activities that people have been doing for hundreds of years. You are going to restrict hunting. You are going to restrict horseriding. You are going to restrict trail bike riding, four-wheel driving and free and dispersed hunting. You are going to restrict prospecting and fossicking, and you have already restricted rock climbing and the walking of dogs through certain parts. You might not put a padlock on it, but you are going to diminish the capacity of Victorians to get out, be with their family, commune with nature, take on those activities and have a healthy life.

It is also scandalous that this document that I am speaking to talks about threats to biodiversity. We are going to look at the threats to biodiversity. This government has not had a state-of-the-parks assessment and has not assessed the state of our national parks since February 2018, so we are nearly up to seven years without actually checking. There is no scientific monitoring of what this government is doing in our national parks. Is there any conservation? Is it protecting native flora and fauna? There are no checks and balances. It says it is going to lock it up – well, it is not saying it now, but it means that it is going to lock it up – but it is not actually doing the homework and the science. What else it is doing is ripping the funding out of Parks Victoria, out of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. There are less boots on the ground and there are more suits bloating in metropolitan Melbourne. This is not the way to behave – $95 million budget cuts we see.

We also see Mount Arapiles access being reduced by about 60 per cent. This is a world-famous site. This is a world-famous activity, and people come to live in the regions to conduct and enjoy those activities. They stimulate the economy and they provide jobs and much-needed services in there. We also have the 50,000 hectares of the Wombat and Lerderderg state forests about to be put into national parks by this government. It is not saying it is going to look after flora and fauna any better; it is just going to do it. The impact on our regional communities is significant. There have been, as I said, cuts to regional staff and lay-offs. I was talking to somebody who works out of Ballarat the other day. She said, ‘We had fantastic field staff, and there were 15 of those cut out under our nose.’ It is absolutely appalling. This is a government of deceit. It is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of not only regional Victorians but metropolitan people who love to get out in the bush and conduct their activities. The Nationals and I am sure the Liberals absolutely oppose the creation of any new national parks. We want to see our forests protected and looked after, not shut up.