Thursday, 20 February 2025

 Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (09:47): The Nationals will always defend the right of the public to access public land. We understand the importance of being out in nature, of enjoying the bush, of camping – free camping – in our state forests and in our campgrounds. We understand that, overwhelmingly, the majority of those people do the right thing, but there is a disconnect with some campers in relation to being in the bush and respecting the environment. Last week at Erica, the wonderful town of Erica, I attended a community meeting run by the Mountain Rivers Landcare Group that raised the issue that the government is failing in its duty to manage the bush in a proper and active way and get the balance right between people camping in the bush and cleaning up after themselves. The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action office in the Latrobe district covers off a large space of time and area, and the Erica office has 12 staff in it. These 12 staff were on dispersed activities on Saturday 4 January, where approximately 4000 campers were onsite. Clearly some issues that were raised need to be addressed: the lack of education in the CALD community about appropriate behaviour, oversight and monitoring, good behaviour and deterring poor behaviour, the lack of authorised officers amongst those campers and understanding the right thing to do. I call on the government to address this.