Thursday, 28 November 2024

Parks Victoria

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:38): (1347) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Environment. I have got a rhetorical question for the house: what does a minister do when his department or her department is failing in its performance, failing in its duties and failing in its outcomes? It has a review. It was a short space between the question and the answer. We saw that this week with the Minister for Education in terms of the Victorian Catholic Education Authority debacle over three years – yet another review. We saw it today at 5 o’clock when the Minister for Environment put out in a press release that he is calling for a review into Parks Victoria’s priorities and objectives and the organisation’s administration, finances, functions and delivery model. That is because it is not working. It is not working for the environment, it is not working for biodiversity values and it is not working for the millions of Victorians who want to go into our beautiful, amazing national parks and have a world-class experience, because they are getting run down and they are not being managed appropriately.

We know that in this year’s budget the government cut $95 million out of their budget. We know that it forced a cut of 51 of its 111 services and launched an operational review to shake out another hundred staff. We know – and I speak to past and present rangers and Parks Victoria staff – that there is too much mushroom cloud in the middle management and not enough field officers and park rangers. There are too many suits and not enough boots. We also know that the minister has, through an agreement, let Mr Matthew Jackson go. I make no major comment about him other than to say he has overseen this incredible demise of our Parks Victoria. I do know Mr Gus Dear. He is an East Gippslander; at the moment he is the chair of the Victorian fisheries board. He seems to have his heart in the right place – passionate about solutions and passionate about our environment, but passionate about people on the landscape and public access to land. We also know this government has botched Mount Arapiles by locking it up. It has botched the Wombat–Lerderderg State Park, putting it into a national park that is supposed to be coming, and also potentially the great forest national park. The minister has this review coming, and the action I seek is for the terms of reference of this review into Parks Victoria to include the consideration of the costs, the benefits and the efficiencies of reabsorbing Parks Victoria back into the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. That is my action for the minister.