Thursday, 24 February 2022

Bills

Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Ms D’AMBROSIO:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Ms McLEISH (Eildon) (10:06): It is with pleasure that I rise to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I do so wearing two hats—actually three: firstly as the relevant Shadow Minister for Environment and Climate Change; as the Shadow Minister for Tourism, which I think has a bit of an overlap here; but equally I have three of the mountains that are impacted here, Mount Buller, Mount Stirling and Lake Mountain, in my electorate. This is a sector that I know very well. Having been a skier in the past when my knees were perhaps a little bit more sturdy, it was something that I enjoyed greatly. People have headed to the mountains, to the High Country—it is easy to say for decades, but it has actually been for longer periods than that, because Mount Hotham actually acknowledged that the Aboriginal people gathered in large numbers in the High Country, particularly in the spring and the summer months, and that connection with that area still remains. It was the Taungurung and the Gunnai/Kurnai that went there. I imagine it might have been a tad chilly and even their possum skin coats might not have kept them warm and free from frostbite in those very chilly winter times. That was significant then, and it remains significant, that relationship.

The alpine resorts are very important to many economies—local economies and also the Victorian economy. They actually contribute $1.1 billion to the economy each year, attracting 1 million visitors and sustaining around 10 000 jobs, so it is quite a significant sector. In fact the Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Council industry update in December 2019 records that the resorts received a total of 933 098 visits over 1.6 million visitor days. So we know that people stay for a number of days when they head to the alpine resorts. Visitation in 2019 was slightly down on 2018, and I have not seen the figures for 2020 or 2021, but they had very choppy snow seasons. Like many, I want to see the mountains thrive. Their long-term sustainability is important, and when I look at the local economies that these mountains support I know personally how many jobs rely on and are created through this industry—and year round. I see these mountains already looking at ways—they probably have been for the last decade—they can adapt to climate change, and they have made a number of advancements in that direction.

It is not always easy up on the mountains, because you never know what sort of season you are going to get. It is great if there is snow for opening weekend, but that is no good if it melts and is all gone for school holidays, when they get a lot of visitation. Weekends are very heavy. You can have a variety of snowfalls—light, heavy. You can have great snowfalls and the rain can wash it out. You can have blizzards and all sorts of things, and the timing really makes a difference. The fact that they can use snow-making machines now has been a real boost to the mountains because it means that they can guarantee snow on opening weekend. The temperature can be I think about 14 degrees and the snow cover can still remain, and they can still keep churning it out and groom a lot of the runs. So that means that during the earlier times and the later times they can actually boost the number of runs that are available and extend the season, and for them that makes a huge difference to the economy.

I want to thank the minister’s office for arranging the briefings. The minister’s office have always been helpful and responsive, and I thank Emily for her work. I also want to acknowledge the department staff and their knowledge and experience, which I also appreciate. Ian Campbell-Fraser and Grant Watkinson were the ones who met with me and walked me through this. I know that Ian had a lot of engagement with the stakeholders during the development of this bill, and people really appreciated his efforts and his knowledge.

The purpose of the bill is to establish Alpine Resorts Victoria (ARV). It is another entity, and it is going to be responsible now for managing the six alpine resorts. These resorts are Falls Creek; Mount Hotham; Mount Buller; Mount Stirling, which is side by side with Mount Buller; Lake Mountain; and Mount Baw Baw. At the same time as it creates Alpine Resorts Victoria it is going to abolish the four existing resort management boards as well as the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council, the ARCC. Despite there being six mountains, there are only four management boards, because we have Buller and Stirling as one and we have Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain under the Southern Alpine Resort Management Board.

As you would expect, the bill makes related amendments to a number of other bills—the Emergency Management Act 2013, the Forests Act 1958 and the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021, which has only just gone through the Parliament—in its efforts to address the establishment of the new entity.

I guess the question first of all needs to be asked: why are we making these changes? Why is the government changing the way in which the boards are managed? There are a couple of reasons—mostly strengthening and modernising, which are happening on the way, and looking for efficiency of operations and financial sustainability for the long term. It is certainly no secret that given the different factors at play, different mountains have different challenges and struggles. I look at some of the smaller ones, Baw Baw and Lake Mountain. They do not have resorts—there might be one lodge I think at Baw Baw—but you do not go and stay on those mountains, you stay nearby, whereas at Buller, Hotham, Falls and Stirling you have those lodges, you have apartments. You have quite extensive villages at those mountains, so financial sustainability for the long term is particularly important.

I want to go over some of the history of the management of the resorts over time, because it has changed quite a lot. I will start in 1984 with the establishment of the Alpine Resorts Commission (ARC). At that time all of the mountains had different management arrangements. Forests Commission Victoria was responsible at Buller and the State Electricity Commission of Victoria at Falls Creek, because they had the Kiewa there and they had quite an extensive program there with the power, and actually the SEC built the first lodge, in 1948, at Falls and a lift in 1951. We do not ever stop to think of the history of these sorts of things. The lands commission was responsible at Hotham.

I also find interesting that when the ARC was formed Mount Donna Buang and Mount Torbreck, both of which are in my electorate, were also part of the ARC, but something has happened. I am not quite sure how come they have dropped off over the years. I do not think Donna Buang gets the love and attention that it really deserves. It is just out of Warburton. It does not get as much snow, but when it does get snow it is really busy, and the facilities there have really dropped.

The charter of the ARC in 1984 quite interestingly is not terribly dissimilar to what is being put forward now for Alpine Resorts Victoria. I am led to believe that this went on okay for quite some time, but by 1997, some 15 years later, this was—I am quoting from a stakeholder—‘a bit of a bloated, fat bureaucracy’. There were loads of staff and none of them were connected with the mountains, so the mountains were feeling very disenfranchised. In 1997 things started to happen, started to change, and the Kennett government were moving here. In 1998 the ARC ceased operation. It moved from that one central bureaucracy, gave the power to the resorts and, as you could imagine with the Kennett government, encouraged competition between the resorts. This was very much looking at improving service levels and reducing costs.

Again, that went on quite well for a period of time and then it was altered again. It was succeeded by the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council, which had five different resort management boards, and again Buller and Stirling were under the one management board. Again, that worked well for a period of time. You know, when the resorts had their own powers, so to speak—their own management boards—that actually was when they did a lot of the development with lifts and chalets and opening new runs.

Things moved on a little bit. I think it would be fair to say that some of the stakeholders on the mountains did not always think they had the greatest voice, so Minister Smith, the then environment minister in the Baillieu-Napthine governments, created the Alpine Resorts Industry Advisory Group, which is the industry association voice on the mountain. ARIAG have continued to feed into the ARCC. Since that time there has been a little bit of uncertainty within the mountains about what exactly it is going to look like. What did their future look like for them? There were lots of stories, lots of rumours. As I said, the then minister at the time in 2014 had a study done, which actually was pushing towards this model. You have got to ask now: here we are in 2022 and this was sitting on the table pretty well in 2014—and I am sure that he will speak to that a bit later.

Whilst there was a little bit of argy-bargy about how they were going to manage these boards, we saw in 2015 that they merged the boards of Baw Baw and Lake Mountain. I know there was a lot of uncertainty here for Lake Mountain about how that would look and the representation from Lake Mountain and the representation from Baw Baw, because some board members would know one and not the other. At the time there was talk that perhaps they would do a southern and do a northern and have the four mountains in the north all under one umbrella. That did not happen. But what did happen in November 2017, effective in March 2018, was they changed the board structure of the RMBs, the resort management boards, to have four directors who were common to each of the RMBs. So you had three from each mountain but you had four who were common, who moved.

Within the stakeholders people were certainly worried that if there was something that was contentious, those four would vote as a bloc for the mountains rather than just for their mountain, and that went on. Here we are not so far down the track, and we have another change. I think it is fair to say—and I have spoken to many, many stakeholders; I know many of those stakeholders personally—that they think now that once this gets bedded down it will be here for a good 15 or 20 years, like the previous changes. They will be good as they are for the time. They will iron out things, get it all moving and settle down, and then there will be little things that need tweaking or changing maybe 15, 20 years down the track.

As I move into the details of the bill, in many respects the bill actually does not change the intent of the alpine resorts legislation at all, and a lot of it largely mirrors what is already in existence. It establishes ARV and replaces the RMBs—it replaces the names of the mountains—and it replaces the ARCC as well, the coordinating council. It replaces all of those but leaves a lot of things quite similar, so a lot of what they do and what the intent is remains unchanged. However, there are a number of inclusions, and I will talk about these inclusions. One of them is new section 6A, which is about the alpine resorts principles. They are in legislation, so they are in black and white. It is clear what those principles are. Within those there is recognition and incorporation of the traditional owners. There is a focus on climate change for the destinations to be year round, and also that the unique characteristics of each alpine resort have to be considered. This is really important, because Baw Baw is very different from Mount Buller. Mount Buller and Mount Stirling are side by side, but they have differences. Stirling is your cross-country mecca. Craig and Barb Jones have run lessons and adventures and things from there for, gosh, as long as I can remember and have put everything into Stirling. Again, it is quite different from Falls and Hotham. Recognising the unique characteristics of each resort is important because I know that within each mountain they think, ‘Well, what about us? We don’t fit. One size does not fit all’, and I think that this is the option that is put there so the government says, ‘We do recognise’—and I recognise—‘that one size does not fit all’.

Another thing I will talk a little bit more about is the stakeholder consultative committees that are being set up at each resort and the change to the skills-based board structure, and I think things have been moving to that a little bit. On the way the bill attempts to modernise the legislation and the governance model. Basically we are looking at a single authority to improve the coordination, cost efficiencies and the overarching strategic leadership to the sector. There are some 200-plus staff, plus a whopping load of seasonal cohorts, and that will also transfer to the entity. The assets will transfer. It is actually quite interesting to look at the assets because the land is Crown land but the assets on that Crown land are mostly privately owned—85 per cent of the assets across all of the mountains are in private ownership. A couple of things are missing from this legislation, but one of the key things is that recognition of the involvement of the private sector.

I am told that it is very difficult to invest in the mountains. Because it is not your own land, because it is Crown land, the banks require a 50 per cent deposit, so already you are behind the eight ball in trying to be engaged and involved. It is so important that we have recognition of the role that the private lodges, the hotels, the restaurants, the ski hires, the supermarkets and the chemists play, because without those private investors, the private players, we do not have a sector, winter or summer.

I want to touch on the principles in new section 6A that is being inserted. The minister has seven principles that have been put here, and I just want to touch on those. I am told that they are all equally weighted, which is important. One is:

protecting the unique environmental, social, cultural and economic characteristics of each … resort …

that is, that uniqueness that I mentioned before. Also:

planning for and managing all alpine resorts in a co-ordinated manner that adapts to and responds to the impacts and risks of climate change …

I mentioned that before. Certainly with climate change there is talk of reduced snow levels. The fact is they can make snow, and these machines churn it out incredibly fast—to see them in operation and how they can add to or build runs. In fact we have seen the last couple of Winter Olympics being run on man-made snow. It is really quite extraordinary to look at what they can do. A lot of the mountains say, ‘Look, this is one of the things we are doing to adapt to climate change. If there is going to be less snow, we can make it’. I know at Mount Buller now they have secured their water source to help them do that. It was also to help the town up on Buller have the water they require.

The third principle relates to the:

… impact of the use of the … resorts on natural and cultural features and the ecology of the alpine resorts …

And this is where the government is bringing the traditional custodians into the act:

respecting, protecting and promoting … self-determination, cultural values, practices, heritage and knowledge in the … resorts …

Another principle is:

partnering with traditional owners in policy development, planning, and decision-making …

There is the protection and enhancement of the amenity, access and use of each alpine resort for ‘future generations’, so not just now but also for the future, and:

promoting investment in a diverse range of tourism and recreation experiences, for all seasons …

Should there be time I will talk about the diversity into the green season that a lot of the mountains have done.

There are a couple of concerns that have been raised with me—quite a lot actually—about the funding model and the operating model. The funding and the operating models I think, as I have said, do not really belong in the legislation, but they are concerns and are things—with regard to the implementation, the rollout of ARV—that the government needs to be on top of. There is a lot of concern that big mountains will be propping up the smaller mountains. The smaller mountains think, ‘Well, are we going to get more money as a result of this? What does it look like? We know what we need to do to make the visitation better, the experience better, the winter season longer, the summer season more enhanced. We know what to do, but it requires investment’, and they are not sure what that looks like. As to that operations model, the stakeholders say to me, ‘We want to know how it’s going to work’. That will be bedded down, and I am sure that there will be things that need to be tweaked and it might not be quite right in the first instance.

One of the other concerns that I have is about the board composition. This is quite interesting. On moving to a skills-based board—which is certainly what is modern, and you need to be doing and making sure of that—it talks about the skills, but it actually does not ever say that any of these board members must live locally. It could be that they ski at Buller, they ski at Falls, but they all live in Melbourne. It is quite possible that that could be the case. So there is a little bit of edginess about that. But one of the things that alarmed me somewhat is the subsection which says:

… Alpine Resorts Victoria has a Board of directors that consists of not fewer than 3 …

Three! I cannot imagine trying to get a quorum and establishing what is a quorum with three. I really think that should have been at least five and not more than nine. I am fine with that. In the bill briefing there were a lot of words about consistencies across agencies, and when I looked at the number of board members on many different government agencies there were typically around seven or nine. I would have thought that having the number in the legislation go down to three was possibly not the right number.

There are so many towns that are so heavily reliant on the mountains. At Mount Hotham, Bright is close by, and it really has a lot of focus on and a lot of investment in the mountain. At Falls Creek, it is Mount Beauty—a smaller town than Bright. At Mount Buller we have got Merrijig, which relies on it very heavily and also relies on a lot of great horseriding activities in the summer months. And Mansfield—I know a lot of people in Mansfield will work on the mountain in winter and they might have an interest over summer, and they will work in the town over the summer. Lake Mountain has Marysville as the place, and Marysville is reliant on good conditions at Lake Mountain.

Now, I consulted absolutely widely on this bill. I want to just read through some of the feedback. The councils who are close by want to make sure that they are not left out, because as I said, there are so many towns in their municipalities that are reliant on a successful snow season typically and as the green season picks up. They are very concerned about how the priorities for resource allocation to individual resorts will be determined—the funding model. They want assurance that the big players are not going to get it all or are not going to try and force a model that works for them but may not work for the smaller ones—the one size fits all that I mentioned before.

There were concerns about whether this adds another layer of bureaucracy. Though, when you are removing four resort managements boards and the ARCC and creating this, with the jobs going over—except the little bit about executive level; that is not quite happening—I do not think that is something that they need to be concerned about. The transition was interesting. I am pleased to see that the transition to this is not going to be made mid ski season, it is actually going to be made after that. I think that will let everybody know what is coming, have a good season, think about it and then transition to the new season after that. The timing is something that has been raised as important.

Private sector investment I mentioned earlier. Also I mentioned earlier about whether the small resorts will receive appropriate funding, because I do know that at Lake Mountain it has been very difficult for them. At the higher mountains—at Falls, Hotham and Buller—the biggest concerns, again, are about the funding and operating model, and I have covered off on those. They have said they worry when the people who are doing the consulting do not have knowledge of the mountain as it is. With the concerns of a lot of the stakeholders, one of the areas that has been incorporated, to I think placate them to some degree, is the establishment of a stakeholder consultative committee:

Alpine Resorts Victoria must appoint a stakeholder consultative committee for each alpine resort …

That is six of them. That should give the stakeholders a voice, so they are heard. Having a voice is one thing, being heard and listened to is another. But, again, all resorts are unique. That is mentioned in the principles, and here we have got the stakeholder committees which will represent passionately each of those mountains and will make sure they are heard. They are not backward in coming forward by any means. I note that the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events is at the table and that he was at Falls Creek very recently and met with the CEOs. He would understand that these guys probably are not at all backward in coming forward and the stakeholders have very firm views.

I want to end on some of the stories. We have had a long history not just through the First Nations people’s involvement with the mountains but also once we started to use them and look at them as ski resorts. At Mount Buller they have got a website which talks about the legends and personalities, because there are a lot of people there who have been there for donkeys. One of the ones that I will mention, Bob Fleming, is coming up for 50 years. If you have skied Buller at Koflers, you will know Koflers, and 50 years on the mountain is a fairly extraordinary time.

Things have changed significantly. Hans Grimus came in the late 1960s, and what a personality Hans was. He died in 2018, but he was there in the late 1960s and got involved at Hotel Pension Grimus. His family—Lotte, the boys, Anton—are still heavily involved on the mountain. Hans was right up until his death. He did a lot of work shaping the mountain, and some of the stories about how he literally shaped the mountain are pretty amusing and would never happen these days—but they had a little bit more freedom in those days.

John Perks runs the Arlberg Hotel; he is coming up for his 43rd winter. John was referred to as ‘the apprentice’ by Bob Fleming and Hans Grimus, and John said to me that those early days were great fun. It was not as professional as it is nowadays. They had a lot of fun building, getting involved with the lifts and the ski runs and creating Mount Buller as it is, and he said, ‘But you know what? Now it is very hard work’. He said that after two years of lockdowns. The ski fields were operating and they had to close the lifts at 1 o’clock and everybody was still there. I think people got creative doing some outdoor exercise—the lifts were closed but they tried to do a little bit of cross-country and snowboarding down the mountain and walking up a little bit.

We have George Aivatoglou at George’s Ski Hire. He, at 24 years of age, came up in 1962, and Rob and his wife, Oni, are now still actively involved. These people have just put so much of their lives into these mountains, and this is what I have said—85 per cent of the resorts, the assets, are owned privately. These guys have put their money where their mouths are. They have invested heavily. They have created what we have and what we know to be a wonderful resort.

Laurie Blampied is on his way out. He has been at Mount Buller Ski Lifts since 1995, and he is now working in a part-time capacity. He has moved off the mountain, but he has been an institution there. These people know so much about the mountains. There are Mark Woodsford—I want to give Woody a mention too because every year, good on him, he organises a prawn dinner up at Buller, and it is the place to be at the end of the snow season. There is Barb and Craig Jones over at Mount Stirling. I have watched the highs and the lows for some of these people; they talk about how difficult it was during the lockdowns.

So all in all with this alpine resorts legislation I think most of the stakeholders are comfortable. They have concerns about the funding models and the operating models, and I urge the government to listen to them. I urge them to establish the stakeholder committees sooner rather than later and to make sure that there is a good representation of stakeholders on those committees and it is not just three people. You know, you can have a good working committee with a similar size to a board—maybe with nine members—and you could co-opt people onto that, whether you are in the ski lift business, whether you are running the supermarket. You know, you have got the ski patrol up there—and they do a fabulous job, the ski patrol. They work out how to get people off the mountain. We have the police involved on the mountains as well. They have to get involved when people disappear—sometimes they get a little bit lost at night. We are not opposing this legislation.

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (10:36): It is with great pleasure that I join the debate on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I think it is appropriate, particularly given we honoured the memory of the former member for Benalla, Denise Allen, this week. Her family were here, and a number of us did members statements. I was cut off because we only have 90 seconds, but I did want to just reiterate Denise’s passion for the alpine resorts. At that time in the Benalla electorate there was Mount Hotham, Mount Buller and Lake Mountain and Falls Creek was just outside, so that electorate then covered almost every resort except for Mount Baw Baw. She really had an enormous passion for representing those resorts, and even though she had a physical disability herself she was a great voice for the communities that make their living from those resorts. I really want to thank her, because it was the opportunity that I had in working to help her get elected when volunteering on that campaign that reintroduced me and my children to the pleasures of alpine life. In the 20 years since we have only missed the last two seasons, given we have had the lockdowns. So I really did want to thank Denise for that. We have had a great deal of pleasure since then.

I have an absolute interest and abiding passion for these resorts, what they are and what they can be. Most Victorians and most Australians do not, I think, understand that in the Snowy Mountains—that is, our Snowy Mountains and New South Wales’s as well—even though most of the visitation is in that small window of the ski season, they actually have more visitors every year than the Great Barrier Reef. This is an enormous asset to Victoria and to New South Wales. It is a billion-dollar industry to Victoria, and I know the Minister for Tourism and Major Events at the table understands that. He was just at Falls Creek last weekend, and I know that the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change was at Buller recently. I have the former tourism minister, the member for Lara, just sitting here to my right, and I know in the time that he was the minister for tourism that he just loved visiting our great resorts.

Before I go into the details of the bill I just want to make reference to our great medallists and the great results that Australia had in the Winter Olympics. We do not have very much alpine snow cover in our country, and we are desperately trying to hang onto it. It is one of the reasons I fight so hard for climate mitigation, and I just hope that the federal government listens, because we want to keep skiing. You know, we finished 18th in the medal tally, which is just amazing—ahead of Great Britain. We know they have a whole lot of colder weather. I just wanted to pay tribute to Jakara Anthony. If you saw her skiing those moguls—I mean, my knees felt really sore when I saw that. I like a few moguls but not to that level. She got gold in women’s freestyle skiing moguls. For Jaclyn Narracott in the skeleton—I have always been fascinated by the luge and the skeleton, going down headfirst like that—that was just remarkable to get silver. There is Scotty James in the men’s snowboard half-pipe and Tess Coady in the women’s snowboard slopestyle, and I particularly want to give a shout-out to Greta Small from Porepunkah, a tiny little town in Victoria. She did not start skiing until her late teens, like my kids really, and she is placing at a high level and is just such a gorgeous, gorgeous young woman. Lydia Lassila was an amazing commentator I think, and Buller have named a lift after her quite rightly.

When I entered this Parliament I entered with the great Kirstie Marshall, the former member for Forest Hill, and really when we came in in 2002 the ski faction was born. Many of us just enjoyed great times up there. The late Lynne Kosky was an amazing skier and supporter of these resorts along with Denise Allen. Maxine Morand is a former board member and was a great ski champion of the resorts, and it is the same with former Deputy Premier John Thwaites in downhill and cross-country. I have always been too lazy to do cross-country; I like more of an adrenaline rush. But anyway, there have been many of us that just love these resorts.

With the last two years of COVID it has just been so sad. Ski resorts all over the world have had the same issue. But I think the reform that the government is putting before the house is really a model that is going to assist our resorts to go forward into the future and to realise that dream that we have to use year-round our beautiful High Country. We see particularly with our more newly arrived migrants, those from South Asia in particular are not crazy like Australians, who just hug the coast in summer. They understand with the cooler temperatures in summer that the High Country is actually a good place to go on holiday. So that is why as a government we have invested strongly through our regional tourism fund to ensure that we can capitalise on this.

The member for Eildon free-ranged a lot about the resorts in her electorate and nearby, but I think one of the things she missed was really the volunteers that have built resorts over the years—they are not necessarily privately owned but they are on leases—that is, the ski lodges. They really are the heart particularly of Mount Hotham, and I know in my electorate particularly in the north of Melbourne so many tradies just got together in the 1960s and 70s and built those lodges. They really are a unique part of our resorts, together with the other more well-known families and of course the ski lift companies that are so important.

I have met and consulted with stakeholders in relation to this bill, and I want to commend the department for doing the same thing. I think that there really is overall support and the need for change. I did want to congratulate Belinda Trembath, who is a good mate of mine. She is moving after many, many years. She is with Vail Resorts now and has been with that company in various iterations, but she has actually now been promoted to move from looking after the Victorian resorts of Hotham and Falls Creek to also take in Perisher, and she will be moving to Perisher. With people like Belinda that are so well known and passionate about the Victorian mountains now moving to Perisher, together with this change to our structures and having one resort management board without job losses and then having our cross-border commissioner in Victoria and with New South Wales, I see that maybe we can have even better marketing, as I started with in my presentation, across the Snowy Mountains and really work together and improve and grow our resorts more beyond the billion dollars.

I did want to make reference to our disabled winter athletes, and I declare my interest: I am a member of Disabled Wintersport Australia, and I volunteer as a disability guide, assisting people to use the mountain whether they are vision impaired, people in wheelchairs or kids with cerebral palsy. It is just a thing that I absolutely love doing. I know that the DWA wants to recruit the new Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, the member for Ivanhoe, because it is a volunteer organisation, volunteer led. They really look forward to getting him trained up as a disability guide.

But we have a lot of jobs on the mountain. We have many people that volunteer, whether it is through ski patrol or fire brigades, on the mountains. People have an absolute passion for these mountains. The consultative committees that are enshrined in this legislation will be able to gather the great passion and the interests that people have in the mountains, whether it is downhill, whether it is cross-country, whether it is biathlon. There is a great shooting range at Hotham, so people are able to do that. It is the most amazing sport—having your body completely slow when shooting and then bursting your heart while you are cross-country skiing. I encourage you to look at it. There is a lot of it throughout Europe, but we do it here in Australia.

We do our resorts very well in Victoria, and I am sure that this new structure will mean we can do even better in this post-COVID environment and in the climate change world. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (10:46): I am delighted to rise to make a contribution on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As we know, this bill before the house is intended to establish Alpine Resorts Victoria as the entity responsible for managing Victoria’s six alpine resorts, being Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller, Mount Stirling, Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw. In the wonderful Ovens Valley electorate we already are home to the Mount Hotham resort, and with the boundary changes happening later this year the resort of Falls Creek will also fall into the Ovens Valley electorate. I thank the member for Benambra for his great work in that region over many years, and I look forward to being able to take that over that mantle and continue his good work in Mount Beauty and up through Falls Creek.

It also begs the question why this government for Melbourne continues to make decisions from Melbourne that are simply not in tune with regional expectations or their needs or their wants. Not once had the government consulted with me regarding the changes in and the implications of this bill until the bill briefing, which is basically after the horse has bolted and the legislation is making its final landing preparations. This is why the government is not respected beyond the tram tracks of Melbourne, because they just do not consult with key stakeholders in our regions.

The bill abolishes the four existing resort management boards—Falls, Hotham, Buller and Stirling, and Southern—as well as the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council, at which time all the assets and the liabilities will be transferred to the secretary. The bill also makes amendments to the Emergency Management Act 2013, the Forests Act 1958 and the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021 to address the establishment of the new entity. Although the bill does not change the intent of these acts, as it largely mirrors the existing legislation, adopts Alpine Resorts Victoria and replaces references to the existing management structures, it does take the decision-making power away from the local boards—that is a concern we have, and you have heard the member for Eildon speak about those concerns—who are the key stakeholders who understand each resort intimately, and hand it to a centralised Melbourne-based board which invariably will be stacked by Andrews government appointees. We have seen that this week with the CEO of V/Line. He is a failed Labor candidate and ended up becoming the CEO of V/Line. That is where we get our concerns from. It is this type of behaviour that we have come to expect, and another four years of this will certainly ruin Victoria’s reputation and finances for decades.

But the bill has got a couple of inclusions. Some are a bit of a smokescreen to try and demonstrate significant changes, including recognition and incorporation of traditional owners; a focus on climate change, with mountains to be year-round destinations; the unique characteristics of each alpine resort must be considered; the appointment of stakeholder consultative committees at each resort; and of course a skills-based board. In a skills-based board appointed by the Andrews government I suspect one of the skills you would need to get a guernsey on that skills base is to be a Labor Party operative. Anyway, the establishment of the single authority is aimed at improving coordination, cost efficiencies and the overarching strategic leadership of the sector, but we all know, on both sides of this chamber, that cost efficiencies is not a term that goes well with this government. We are told that all existing staff—around about 200 permanent staff—will transfer to the single entity. I cannot say we did not see it coming. In December 2015 the boards of Baw Baw and Lake Mountain were merged, and that became effective in March 2018. Now, the boards were altered to include four board members common across each mountain, so the resort boards could then start to feel what was happening and that somebody else was starting to take control of the mountains. As I say, we could see that coming from afar.

Victoria’s alpine resorts contribute $1.1 billion to the economy each year, attracting more than 1 million visitors and sustaining around about 10 000 jobs when the season is on, which is why we have still got many concerns about the new and improved model by the government for Melbourne. We have still got questions and concerns around the lack of clarity around the resort funding model, concerns about how the larger resorts may be required to prop up the smaller resorts and the anticipated savings through this process. It usually means a lack of state funding and a higher tax threshold for alpine users will be imposed somewhere along the line. Even the department could not quantify the funding model and stated it was unlikely to be realised for a number of years. Most importantly there is no clarity to us—although I am sure the government is clear—around the lack of acknowledgement of private enterprise and its critical role in the investment in and operations of the alpine resorts. As the member for Eildon said, a very high percentage of those who own real estate in the alpine resorts are private investors. Private investment is the key. They are fairly high risk investments in that they run on a shoestring budget and they need to roll with what Mother Nature presents to them each year, whether it is a great snow season—it varies from a great snow season to a very poor snow season—bushfires, rain or wind-affected conditions. They are all the risks that they take in privately investing in our alpine regions. So the lack of a consultation with the private sector again demonstrates the attitude of the government—that it knows it all.

We have also got some concerns around the timing, the commencement and the board composition. Now, it may very well be that all board members could live in Melbourne and just have an association with the mountain, or not even an association with the mountain. The minimum number of board members is three. Again, it is hardly good governance in my eyes. I asked a question at the briefing about the remuneration of board members. It is yet to be determined, so time will tell.

Local councils, like the Alpine shire, who rely heavily on the mountains are often lumbered with the associated costs and infrastructure required to support the surrounding regions, and I am concerned that Alpine Resorts Victoria will not be obliged to consult with them into the future. They may, but they will not be obliged to. A typical example of this is where vehicles travel along the Great Alpine Road. If you want to travel from Bright to Bairnsdale, for example, you can pass through Hotham for no cost; you do not have to pay a fee. We could do with some changes, and we have certainly discussed some changes. If somebody stops for lunch or a coffee or something at Mount Hotham, they then have to pay the resort management fee for staying on the mountain, which is quite impractical because sometimes it might be just poor weather that has held them up or slowed them down. If the consultation continues, well, then we can resolve a few of those issues. As was mentioned by our lead speaker, the member for Eildon, we are not opposing the bill, but as always we expect to be back here soon making amendments to tidy up the mess that sometimes gets made.

Ms HALL (Footscray) (10:54): I am delighted to make a contribution to the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. Footscray is obviously a fairly long way from our alpine resorts, but as many people would know, I have a great affection for Victoria’s High Country, and that is because my family are from Yackandandah. So I am very pleased to contribute to this and speak a little bit about my passion for Victoria’s alpine regions. I inherited that from my father, who was a soil scientist and had a great interest in the alpine resorts and the beautiful environment that we have up there in Victoria’s High Country. I was raised in a house where he often talked about issues like alpine grazing and the impact that that had on the very sensitive and beautiful environment in the alpine region. I am not a great skier, but I do love going up the mountain, especially in summer, actually. I was really pleased this summer to go up the mountain and see all of the mountain bike riding that was happening and bushwalking and all of the great activities that can take place in the summer months as well. I feel very fortunate to have Mum’s house on the Great Alpine Road and to be able to head up the mountain with reasonable frequency.

This bill achieves a number of really important reforms relating to the establishment of Alpine Resorts Victoria, and I am going to focus mostly on the environmental benefits of these reforms. Broadly Alpine Resorts Victoria will enable an integrated, strategic and sector-wide approach to respond to the unique challenges facing the alpine area, including financial and climate change; rectify current duplication and poor coordination across strategic planning, marketing, infrastructure investment and climate change adaptation functions; address stakeholder concerns with the current model of governance; and very importantly, I think, embed traditional owner voices in alpine resort governance.

This bill will abolish the four alpine resort management boards. Any time the prospect of merging bodies is raised, consultation is very important. As the member for Yan Yean outlined, there has been extensive consultation with regard to this new entity, and I would like to acknowledge the hard work of the department in that consultation and the minister. I am pleased to share that a project governance structure was established that included the chairs and chief executive officers of the alpine resort management boards and the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council, among others. A stakeholder reference group was established that comprised representatives from traditional owner groups, resort businesses and user groups, surrounding local governments, regional tourism bodies and Parks Victoria. Stakeholders were consulted jointly and separately, which enabled a broader range of voices and views to be shared than otherwise might have been the case.

This legislation is important to ensure coordinated future good governance of Victoria’s beautiful alpine resorts: Mount Hotham, Falls Creek, Mount Buller, Mount Stirling, Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw. Currently the six resorts are managed by four alpine resort management boards. If this bill passes, Alpine Resorts Victoria will commence on 1 October 2022, which will of course minimise disruption to this year’s snow season. Hopefully we will have a good season this year. It obviously has been a very challenging couple of years for the alpine resorts. I want to acknowledge the minister at the table, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, who has ensured that our alpine resorts have received very substantial support to get through these difficult times. I think that the packages of support that the Victorian government have provided the alpine resorts and the businesses on the mountains have reflected our understanding of the seasonal nature of their industry. I think that that has been very significant to get through these challenging times.

The alpine sector is, as others have noted, a really important part of our regional economies, contributing nearly $1.1 billion to the Victorian economy and attracting 1 million visitors and sustaining nearly 10 000 jobs. I was really interested to hear the member for Yan Yean note that there are more visitors to our alpine resorts than to the Great Barrier Reef. I think that is a fascinating fact. It is so lovely when you go up to Victoria’s north-east and see the towns of Bright, Freeburgh, Wandiligong—I get to say some great township names on this bill—Tangambalanga and of course beautiful Yackandandah. It is so important to the economies of those towns as well. There are so many reasons to visit the Ovens Valley, noting the contribution from the member for Ovens Valley, whether it is wine or music. The Yackandandah Folk Festival is a fantastic event that happens every year. There are so many reasons to go up to the north-east beyond the alpine resorts, which are beautiful all year round.

But because they are such unique places they also present unique challenges to their management. Their remoteness and the high altitude mean that the cost of establishing infrastructure and operating a business in the resorts is high compared to other towns or regions that rely on tourism. Alpine regions, as I noted, are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, whether through reduced snowfall or more frequent and more intense weather events. As I mentioned, with that sensitive alpine environment, of course, successive Labor governments have taken action to protect that unique environment, and stopping alpine grazing is something that I am particularly passionate about. Of course it is not enough to simply buy a heap of new snow machines and expect that to solve our problems when it comes to climate change in the alpine resorts.

This is not new information to the alpine resorts, who have been working for years to undertake adaptive approaches to ensure long-term sustainable operations. That includes measures to include off-season tourism as well as working with local businesses to provide green season products. Unlocking their full potential requires a coordinated strategy, implementation and investment, and I think this bill will deliver that. The last couple of years, as I have noted, have been really challenging for our alpine regions. The bushfires that we remember so vividly and the ongoing impacts of COVID have severely impacted the High Country. I understand what some of these challenges have been like and how locals have been impacted, again through my mum in Yackandandah and my frequent visits to Victoria’s north-east. On that note, I will conclude my contribution, but I wish this bill a speedy passage.

Mr TILLEY (Benambra) (11:03): I rise today to make a contribution on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As the coalition has already said, we will not be opposing this bill. At the start of the week there was excitement in the place when the coalition said it would not be opposing the three bills on the government business program. Although we are not opposing this bill, do not think for a moment that we necessarily wholly support the bills that have been proposed in this place during this week—or quite often a lot of other weeks.

To the point, my contribution will make some particular observations of the bill today. Certainly in two of the last four parliaments I have had the absolute privilege to be able to represent one of Victoria’s iconic ski resorts, being Falls Creek. It has been a particular privilege working with the community. But it is not only Falls Creek itself. When it comes to voter numbers and things like that, on the local level there are not a great deal of voters that are enrolled to vote at Falls Creek, but there are the surrounding areas—Mount Beauty, Tawonga, Towong South. Even the member for Footscray, who just gave a contribution, mentioned Yack—Yackandandah. She tried to mention Tangambalanga, but that is Tangam—but anyway. We have got some great names. The thing is intrinsically the communities are well connected to the ski resorts, particularly Falls Creek and, for my colleague the member for Ovens Valley, Mount Hotham. And similarly with the contribution from the member for Yan Yean, I am not pumping her tyres up, but I know that she has been up there quite a bit and makes a good contribution to the sport that she loves.

While we are name-dropping and things like that, I just want to make a couple of mentions in dispatches of some of the locals that have participated in Olympic and winter sports and other local sports, not only in the state of Victoria but also other places—Perisher, Thredbo and overseas in other competitions. But certainly a lot of us would be familiar with Britt Cox. She was born and raised in Falls Creek, so she lives it, breathes it—everything. Another representative, Phil Bellingham, is a cross-country skier and also a multiple winter games champion. There is a long list.

Mr Wynne: What about Kirstie Marshall?

Mr TILLEY: Yes, Kirstie had a dip as well, and she did exceptionally well. We wish her well in her retirement nowadays. But there is certainly Phil Bellingham and—I have just got to make sure—Steve Lee. Now, Steve is the only Australian winner of a downhill world cup and was an Olympic commentator. He is only aged 60—a lot of us in the room are not too far from around that anyway. Unfortunately he suffered a stroke, and I wish him well. He is not so active nowadays, but I wish him well in any recovery and with his health going into the future.

But getting to the bill, I must say that in my experience here representing the Benambra district in the Victorian Parliament, in the Assembly, there have been many pieces of legislation that have been introduced to the place. The governments principally in my time have been ALP governments. We in this place try to be mature about some of the conversations that we have not only in this room but also in other parts and try and achieve the best for our respective communities, but we do not always win. You win some, you lose some, you draw the others. But anyway, we are challenged to do the best for our communities. But unfortunately this bill that has been introduced here is significantly light on detail. The feedback that I get from all corners around the state and from other ski resorts is that it is significantly light on detail. From all that feedback from the mountains, it lacks transparency in the fact that it was introduced by the Victorian Labor government, the present Labor government, and was going to be transformational, but for a lot of people that have invested, that work not only for statutory bodies but also for those private investors, the consultation process, the lack of—

A member: He’s washing the dishes.

Mr TILLEY: Ease up over there. I have got the talking stick. Anyway, getting back, the point I make is that the consultation has been at best probably poor, because there are a lot of questions. And unfortunately after the hard work, the toil, the effort and COVID over the last couple of years, the rewards for their effort really have not been met as they should be. It is a hard slog where they are making a hell of a lot of effort to make profit or provide a service for those that enjoy snow sports, but the return on the investment is not there. But I am losing a fair bit of time; I had better move on. None of it happens by magic. Getting to the point, the locals there and the investors in the area have driven this. They have worked in cooperation and partnership to develop and create opportunities for their own benefit and for the benefit of the wider community, which spreads far away from Falls Creek. I mentioned earlier that those investors are also from major population centres.

We have got some of the data and the statistics: Falls Creek alone has got 5500 beds for accommodation; it gets 1 million visitors annually during the ski season. The industry as a whole, with all those resorts—Falls, Hotham, Buller, Stirling, Lake Mountain and Baw Baw—collectively add to this state’s economy in excess of $1 billion a year, so it is not small in any part.

On the process that has been going on, I understand that there is a 270-page report written by experts who looked at this new centralised body. Now, the thing is it lacks detail. Significantly, I believe it is cabinet in confidence—look, you guys leak like a sieve sometimes; you really do. Notwithstanding that, this report, as I understand, has made absolutely no recommendations—not one. So where is it? I mean, in the transparency, the transformation and the process, where is this report? Where is the report that backs up wholly this move to centralise the management of our ski fields? It is good to see the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change join us as well. She is a significant stakeholder with her responsibilities with this, it being her bill. Significantly, how can the centralised authority, as proposed by this bill, represent these snow play areas at the same time as the larger resorts of Falls and Hotham subsidise the smaller resorts? We understand and we know to this day that the Victorian government is propping up Baw Baw. When you have got a centralised bureaucracy, how is it all going to work? How is the funding model going to work and the consultation? There is so much unknown at this stage.

On the subject of finances, I note in the second-reading speech—now the minister is here—that it talks about resorts having to draw on cash reserves. Now, the resorts had to call on their cash reserves during COVID. It has not been profitable; there is a significant investment that has to go into it. Anyone that had any involvement in asset management would understand the costs, whether it is for ongoing costs of infrastructure and keeping it all in one piece, and particularly in the High Country, where it is challenging to be able to make sure that those assets will live on into the future. But the thing is what we understand too is—the minister is in the Assembly at the moment—that if they run down their cash reserves, the government will provide a letter of comfort. When they are going broke, going out the door, there is a letter of comfort; you will be backing up the ski resorts unnecessarily. That is all at the taxpayers expense.

With the short half a minute I have left, we are talking about the formulas that are used to fund these assets, to run these assets, to run these resorts and give people a great visitation experience. With the formulas that are used to determine the service fees, some use a bed tax, a commercial rate tax. But also there are the fully enclosed commercial areas. Some of those big places are massive and are going to go out the door. But anyway, this is the bill. I wish I had more time; I have a lot more to contribute. I will have further to say in the future.

Mr DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh) (11:14): It is a pleasure to speak on this important bill, and I am glad that it has broad support in the chamber and hopefully will in the other chamber too. Obviously as colleagues and the minister have said in their contributions, the main purpose of this is to effectively make fit-for-purpose governance arrangements around vitally important heritage assets—cultural heritage and environmental heritage—and a tourism gift effectively that we have across these resorts. I was surprised also to hear the member for Yan Yean say that visitations across these resorts are greater in number than those to the Great Barrier Reef. It is extraordinary when you think about it in those terms. It just adds further weight to the purpose of the bill, which is to provide a fit-for-purpose governance arrangement for such a significant asset.

I want to start by acknowledging the hard work, the dedication and the leadership of the existing boards that have been running these resorts for a long, long time. They are committed, they are experienced and they have shown leadership. This is not about them; it is just about the system in terms of having a governance arrangement which is unified, coordinated and to some extent centralised rather than having individual boards, because the challenges those resorts are facing are bigger than what each resort can contend with.

The main amendment proposed is the abolition of those four alpine resort management boards, Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller and Mount Stirling and Southern, as well as the coordinating council. I do not know enough about the coordinating council, but I suspect that was an attempt at some point in the past to try and provide what the name says—coordination across those resorts. So the bill will establish a new governance entity, Alpine Resorts Victoria (ARV), as the overarching statutory corporate body to govern all alpine resorts, and it is an attempt, as the minister said and others have said, to promote a more coordinated response to the problems that have arisen since the implementation of the original act 25 years ago, in 1997.

I suspect some of the issues about financial sustainability, the ebbs and flows of the demands of tourism—whether it is a good season or not—have probably existed for some time. I think what has happened in the last couple of years has been that the impact of COVID has brought those into sharper focus not just here but around the world in a bunch of different leisure sectors, including alpine resorts and like resorts around the world. In addition, the fact that climate change is now something not to be negotiated with—it is clear there is an impact—is something perhaps that the 1997 act did not foresee in quite the same way we see it now. So the implementation of an overarching ruling body would allow for these problems and challenges to be responded to much more efficiently and successfully.

The main drivers of the reforms in this bill are around financial sustainability; strengthening long-term climate change mitigation, and the success of these resorts is dependent probably more on that than any other factor; improving efficiencies by greater cooperation, so back-office efficiency and duplication of a bunch of costs; and modernising governance. And really, as many, many ministers in this government and the Premier have said often in terms of COVID recovery, this is part of a story about COVID recovery that the Victorian government is committed to over this year and subsequent years.

I think if you look at the history that we have in terms of regulation reform—and I talked about this this week in this chamber and the Assistant Treasurer talked about it yesterday in question time—there are also aspects of regulatory reform here, because I would envisage when this board is established, subject to the bill having a secure passage through the Parliament, there will be businesses that operate across all the resorts that probably have to now deal with multiple registrations and multiple arrangements in terms of licences. You would imagine a future board would streamline those procedures across all its resorts for the same business, so there is a regulatory reform aspect to this as well.

Alpine Resorts Victoria, the new board that we are seeking to create from this bill, this legislation, will be tasked with ensuring that local stakeholders are consulted regarding specific strategic plans which directly affect those stakeholders. In some response to the member for Benambra—I do not want to verbal him but something around local knowledge being lost—in the bill we specify the role in relation to local knowledge and consultation with local stakeholders that the new board will have.

Interestingly also something which has become a bit more mainstream thankfully after decades of neglect by previous governments is the place of First Nations people in everything we do, and it is no different in this legislation. ARV will establish increased involvement by First Nations people, who were the traditional custodians of the lands on which the alpine resorts are located. That will be done by partnering with traditional owner organisations in developing policies, planning and decision-making around the resorts and maintenance in terms of economic sustainability. This amendment is critical, this bill is critical, for the future survival of those resorts, and not just for survival—if we look at it as a glass half full—but for a better future for those resorts, for local stakeholders, traditional owners, local communities, towns and also tourism in Victoria.

The minister, as is often the case with these appointments, will be required to appoint people to the board who have requisite skills and knowledge that would make them able to govern these resorts. What is interesting about this particular bill, though, is that the minister will also be required to appoint people who have, amongst a range of skills, cultural knowledge of Indigenous practices and cultures centred around the alpine environments, which I think is outstanding. You can imagine a future where some of these board members will actually be elders who have some knowledge and experience of and a deep cultural connection to that land. That can only be a good thing in terms of the future of these resorts. Maybe the tourism and commercial offerings will change over time to incorporate and be more around Indigenous culture and connection to the land.

I see a whole range of benefits through increased coordination of those resorts, including collaboration between them so they offer a customer experience—whether that be to Victorian customers or national or international customers—that is seamless across all the resorts and reducing admin burdens for those resorts and for businesses dealing with those resorts. It is probably no different to, when you think about it, the development of Parks Victoria and how Parks Victoria came to be. A range of different authorities used to run the public parks in Victoria, and there was seen to be far more benefit in providing a more fit-for-purpose outfit that consolidated a bunch of skills, established a bunch of practices and had enough economies of scale to do something that was far more market led, I suppose, tourist savvy and customer savvy with parks across Victoria. This is the same thing. These resorts have been doing excellent work under difficult circumstances beyond their control—as I mentioned, climate change, but also just financial sustainability. While this is primarily a governance change, it is one that I think we will look back on in 10 or 20 years and be thankful that we made because of where the alpine resorts will be at that point in time in terms of their financial sustainability, their tourism achievements, their cultural and Indigenous heritage and respect for the land.

I commend the minister. She committed to this last year or the year before, and here we are on the floor of the Parliament debating the bill that we committed to—after consultation, after much thought, and with a better future in mind for those alpine resorts. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr T BULL (Gippsland East) (11:23): It is a pleasure to rise and make a few comments on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As we have heard, this bill establishes Alpine Resorts Victoria (ARV) as the entity responsible for managing our six Victorian resorts: Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller, Mount Stirling, Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw. My electorate is very, very close to the Mount Hotham Alpine Resort; I just do not quite take it in. I might say that in the recent redistribution I was hoping just to creep a little bit further up the hill and get either Dinner Plain or Mount Hotham. It would have been fantastic to have a snowfield in my electorate of Gippsland East to complement the great lakes and the great national parks that we have in the far east of the state.

Whilst this bill oversees the alpine resorts, and we need strong functioning and successful alpine resorts, it also has implications for the neighbouring townships around those alpine resorts. In my electorate Omeo and Swifts Creek spring to mind because the attractiveness of and the visitation to those snowfields are heavily relied upon from an economic perspective by those nearby communities.

In establishing the ARV the bill abolishes the four existing resort management boards as well as the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council, and all assets and liabilities will be transferred. There is one element that I would like the new ARV to have a look at. Our alpine resorts should be open and attractive to all, and a lack of flexibility in travelling through the resorts is something that I would like this new body to have a look at and review. At the present time if you are travelling along the Great Alpine Road, you leave Mount Hotham and you are heading towards Bright and you have got to travel through the resort, or even if you are coming back the other way, there is a limited amount of time. If you stop over, whether that be to have a coffee or to have a toilet break, you will cop a fine if you are there for any length of time. The requirement is that you have to purchase a paid permit to stay in the resort for any length of time. Surely in this day and age when we are encouraging drivers to stop every 2 hours and take a decent break, we should be allowing a driver or a family to stop over in these resort areas for 30 minutes, 1 hour or even longer. Whether that is to have a coffee break, take a break from driving, go to the toilet or even to take a photo of the scenery that you want to put on social media, people should not have to pay for that privilege of a short-term stopover.

I do not know if any in the chamber have driven the road from Bright up to Mount Hotham, but the road on the northern side is very, very winding and very, very steep. If you are scared of heights, you do not want to be getting too close to the edge because it is a sheer drop-off. It takes a lot of concentration and you have got to take enormous care, particularly if you are travelling in conditions that are a bit wet, a bit icy and a bit slippery. For many there is a sense of relief when you get to the top. I can speak from personal experience of taking children up that stretch of road. If you wanted to get one of your kids carsick, you would go to that road. I reckon it would be the road in Victoria that you would go to—the road up the northern side of Mount Hotham. Then when you arrive in Hotham, you think, ‘Gee, we can’t stop for any length of time or we’re going to get a fine from the resorts commission’.

So I would really like the ARV to have a look at something a bit more flexible and a bit more sensible: allow people to stop over for an hour or maybe two before they get a fine for not having paid for a permit. Obviously you have got to draw a line in the sand somewhere, and I certainly get that—maybe they do not want people staying there for 4 hours or whatever it might be—but I just do not think it is reasonable at the moment and I do not think we have got it right. I would like us to revisit that time frame for a whole range of reasons, with driver safety being at the forefront.

The other issue that I would like the new entity to have a look at is, and it is an issue that is topical in the resorts in my area—and when I talk about resorts I am talking about Mount Hotham and Dinner Plain—a neighbourhood safer place in the advent of fire. If you drove through the Hotham and Dinner Plain area in recent years, you would have seen where the flames literally came to the very, very edge of those communities. It basically burnt right into the township. Our resorts are not only occupied in winter, we obviously know that they are occupied year round. There has been a strong push, particularly from the Dinner Plain community—they have the area available to them—to create a neighbourhood safer place, a large cleared area for people and residents to go in the advent of fire. Sometimes you do not get a lot of notice. Sometimes you cannot get down the hill when a lightning strike goes through, as the Minister for Planning at the table would agree. You can have several hundred lightning strikes and in the wrong conditions when fuel loads are high you can have fire and flames all around you. It jumps ahead of the fire front. You have spot fires and you cannot see where you are going because of the smoke—it is literally unsafe to drive. I know there has been a really strong push from the Dinner Plain community to have a neighbourhood safer place established that would suit not only that community but also Hotham, which is literally 5 minutes up the road, for people to be able to gather. I know there are issues around vegetation offsets and there are other matters to be sorted out, but it comes back to that basic starting point where we need to put human safety first. I would like to see the ARV work with not only those resorts in my area but the resorts around Victoria that are very, very fire prone due to the lightning strikes that occur and sort that out.

In relation to the changes being made, there appears to be relatively little change to the legislation other than adopting the ARV as the management structure, the single authority. It should provide a united voice to be able to address some of these issues that I have raised. We would like a little bit more detail on how it is going to operate, but under this centralised governance model it would be good if we could get some very clear guidelines around things like firebreaks and neighbourhood safer places for communities to be able to gather.

The alpine resorts contribute $1.1 billion to the economy each year and attract a lot of visitors and up to 10 000 jobs, but it is much more than that. For those surrounding communities like Omeo, Swifts Creek and even Bruthen and Bairnsdale further down the hill, when people are travelling to our snowfields they are boosting those local economies within those different townships. The ARV should consider those areas outside their resorts in relation to promoting the routes to the snowfields. We would like to see obviously a lot more people coming through Gippsland, but it is an option that is perhaps not advertised that well—the ability to take in the Gippsland Lakes and some of the national parks on your way up to the snowfields. It would be pleasing to have a strong recognition of, I guess, local economies and private enterprise and not only in those routes to the snowfields. But the ARV also needs to give a strong voice and a lot of consultation to private enterprise within those resorts, because they are the backbone of the economy. There is a great opportunity to grow these locations outside of the winter and make them even more year-round destinations than they have become.

What we need is an agreed investment master plan, if you like, to avoid individual lobbying by the different resorts. We need a master plan of what is going to be delivered, who needs what infrastructure, who is lacking what at the moment and what becomes a priority. I would also like to see a guarantee that there will be local board members. I would not like the ARV to be established with a board that is predominately Melbourne based. I would like to see members of the board coming from communities like Mount Hotham and Dinner Plain—people who actually live there and reside there and know the intricate details of the issues that arise year round. I also understand councils are seeking to have strong pathways of consultation. There is a bit there for the new board to look at, and we are not opposing this legislation.

Mr HAMER (Box Hill) (11:34): I too rise to make a contribution on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, which, as has been mentioned by many members, is seeking to establish Alpine Resorts Victoria, or ARV, as a single board of governance for Victorian alpine reserves and resorts and merge the four current alpine resort management boards into a single governance body. Those four boards are obviously overseeing Falls Creek, Mount Buller, Mount Stirling, Mount Hotham and the Southern board, which is for Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain.

This is a really important reform for our alpine areas. Before I go into why it is an important reform I want to just touch on some of the benefits and impacts of the alpine areas for the community and also draw on what the member for Yan Yean mentioned about paying tribute to our Winter Olympians. A particular shout-out to Scotty James, an eastern suburbs boy. I was reading the story about how he got into snowboarding very young, three years old I think, taking a trip up to Mount Buller, and he seemed to be there almost every weekend after that. I believe even at school when they said, ‘What would you like to be?’, he said he wanted to be an action sportsperson. I do not know if you managed to catch any of the interviews of Scotty James, but he just seemed the most genuine, down-to-earth person and a fantastic ambassador for Australia, for the sport and for the skiing, snowboarding and winter sports in Australia. It is a story I think that resonates with a lot of us.

Obviously most of the population in Victoria live in Melbourne. Much of the population that does not live in Melbourne is not located in close proximity to the alpine areas, but it is an area that is much loved and is accessible. It is only 2 or 3 hours away to cover most of the resorts, and it is something that you can look forward to and take your kids up to on a winter holiday. I know that is something that we certainly want to be looking at this winter—the last couple of winters have obviously been really difficult with the pandemic situation—just to introduce the kids to the snow, even if it is a bit of snow play and tobogganing. It is really important that we have properly functioning resorts, well-run resorts that are sustainable into the long term and that can provide for a whole heap of users, because it does inspire some of those visitors from a very young age to go on and repeat the feats of people like Scotty James.

It is a huge contributor to the Victorian economy. In winter these resorts collectively contribute nearly $1.1 billion to the economy, attracting 1 million visitors and sustaining nearly 10 000 jobs. I think the member for Gippsland East and the member for Benambra also were mentioning that it is not just about the on-mountain jobs but also about the off-mountain jobs and those supporting those nearby townships. That is correct; it is a whole-of-community impact. Whether people go up to the snow for the day or they go for a weekend, even if they are staying on the mountain, it is the trip up and back. I know, for us, we will always pop in to get some local produce and stop by a local restaurant, have a meal and contribute to some of those local towns that surround those alpine resorts, and it is really that broader economic impact that makes it so important that we do have a sustainable alpine tourism industry.

Just looking at the drivers for having the reform that is proposed under this legislation, the primary ones are really about the improved governance and financial stability, bringing all of those boards into a single management but still recognising the unique characteristics that each alpine resort has. Consolidating the resort management will improve the capacity to fund essential infrastructure and operations, particularly in what is a more uncertain future, and the government’s model will provide a modern and fit-for-purpose legislative and governance framework that increases transparency and accountability.

The current legislation, as has been mentioned, was put forward in 1997 and limits the ability to effectively respond to the long-term challenges facing the sector. And of course there is improving functional efficiency through this single governance model, improving coordination and reducing duplication and the fragmentation of roles. There are a couple of particular elements that I want to identify that have been drawn out a lot more in this bill compared to the previous bill, and they are stated in the initial principles and the objectives of the act. One is in relation to the recognition of the traditional owners. The traditional owners were mentioned in the 1997 legislation, but they are given a lot more primacy in this bill. In particular it notes that the Parliament recognises that traditional owners, as the original custodians of the land in alpine resorts, have a unique status as the descendants of Australia’s First People. I think this is a really significant element of this legislation. It is not just about consulting the traditional owners of this land but really recognising that the traditional owners were and are the original custodians of this land, have been active on this land and living on this land for tens of thousands of years and know that alpine landscape. It is really important that their voices are heard and that recognition is provided, and I think the legislation does a fantastic job of incorporating those elements.

The other important recognition in the objectives talks about the environment and ecology of the resorts and the effect of climate change on them. The previous legislation also talked about environment and sustainability, but in those 25 years obviously the focus on climate change has increased a lot more. I think the impact of climate change on the alpine resorts is particularly acute. The CSIRO did some modelling on the impact of climate change on the Victorian ski season, and it predicted that it could become up to 55 days shorter under a low-risk model and up to 80 days shorter under a worst-case scenario. Given that the ski season is typically 112 days long, this would obviously have a massive, massive impact on the alpine resorts. There are obviously technological and mechanical ways of trying to manufacture snow, but even if you do not have the clouds, you still need to have the cold weather and you still need to have the water source to be able to create those conditions.

It will be an ongoing challenge for all the boards, and that is a challenge that all the resorts face equally, I would say. It is not just a single resort issue, it is not just a statewide issue; it is a global issue that needs to be confronted in order to make sure that we have a sustainable alpine tourism industry. There is an enormous amount of work obviously that both the government and the operators in this space are doing to combat this, and I think that having this board structure in place will certainly assist this. So I commend the bill to the house.

Ms BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (11:44): I rise to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and I do so recognising the importance of getting things right so we can recognise the uniqueness of areas of Victoria and get the best outcomes from these fantastic parts of our state. This is a bill that will bring together the six mountains under a framework of cooperation. I note too that at the table I have my colleague who, when we were in government, was the Minister for Environment and Climate Change. During that time he was working with the department on the exact same framework that we have here before us today. The current minister would have come into the role seven years ago with much of the background and work that needed to be done already in shape and ready to go. This is the reason I am raising this and wanting to speak on this bill. Bureaucracy is just too long and too onerous when you need to get outcomes for people who are in business and who are trying to contribute to the state by running businesses that offer experiences and opportunities—or any businesses in fact. So I find it a little bit disappointing that it is eight years since this framework, this opportunity, this idea, should have been implemented—and even to hear some of the members on the other side referring to the fact that it is two years since the first concept of the government was put forward. These time frames are ridiculous. This is forming a committee. This is pretty much getting a group of people together and cooperating—

Members interjecting.

Ms BRITNELL: A little bit more. Okay, I agree. It is a little bit more than that. But the reality of this is timing is critical in business. I look at the very similar activity that we have in my part of the world through the recent structures that the government has put together for the Great Ocean Road. What we had there was a mismatch of departments not able to speak to each other very well and businesses trying to do their best to run visitation experiences. I was getting so many complaints in my office from people from our region who would go down to the Great Ocean Road and use the toilet facilities, and they were filthy and just shocking. I see the reason for better management and cohesive management, but two years on from that being established when you write to them or talk to the committee it is like, ‘We’re getting our feet under the table. There are no outcomes yet because it’s all a bit new’. You know, if you start a business and two years later you are saying you are getting your feet under the table and you have not got any outcomes yet, that is just not going to work. It is going to fail.

I raise this because it is the experience I have seen right across my electorate. Six years ago when I entered this role I was introduced to the owners of the Nelson bait shed. The business there sells bait for fishermen. It is a great little business. It sold fishing licences. All they needed was to have a structure above their head. It was a little jetty with a shed over it and a counter and a freezer with bait in it. The government changed the management of the river—the mouth had closed a lot more than it was—and that is all fine, but the river was rising and the floor of the shed, which was the jetty, was underwater, so the building was condemned or was looking like it was not going to be able to be used. The government was approached to help because it was their asset. For six years this guy had just red tape and onerous requirements—nothing. He could not get anything.

At one point in time they actually quoted a $300 000 build. Most farmers in my electorate would know that you could put that shed up for about $50 000. It was just crazy stuff. So difficult was it for that business to work with the government on a lease to be able to continue doing business there and just get a shed and not have it condemned that when in July last year they said, ‘You have to leave the building because it’s now condemned or it’s no longer fit for purpose, and we’ll continue to work with you’ he walked away. Nelson is a township that relies on tourism. This gentleman and his family were making a modest living. It was not Crown Casino bringing in zillions of dollars, it was a modest business that provided a service to our community. You come to the area and you want to go fishing; you need bait. You want to go fishing; you need a licence. You want to hire a boat, you want to do these things, and they were basically offering a service to the community.

It is not an isolated case. In fact the Princess Margaret Rose Caves have the exact same story. They were trying to negotiate another lease with the government. I do not know if you have been there, but it is a beautiful experience of stalagmites and stalactites. I did go there quite often. They rang me several times and just said, ‘Look, we cannot work with the government. They don’t understand you’re running a business. They won’t give us any continuity. We don’t know how long we can get a lease for. They won’t give us a lease’. The government left them without a lease—so no security for the business. They said, ‘How can we employ people and renew their employment when we actually don’t have a clue whether we can operate from month to month?’. Eventually it was exactly the same thing—they walked away. And guess what? The Princess Margaret Rose Caves are closed still. This is what is on the website today, the Parks Victoria website—

Ms Green: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, this is a very narrow bill. It is on alpine resorts. If the member wants to talk about something else, she can do it in a members statement or by substantive motion. It has got nothing to do with the south-west of the state.

Mr R Smith: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Yan Yean spent the bulk of her contribution talking about athletes, albeit in the snowfields. I have been listening closely to the member for South-West Coast, and I think she is totally in keeping with the bill and is quite entitled to canvas the issues that she is canvassing.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Connolly): On the point of order, the member has strayed somewhat from the bill. If I could bring her back, we can continue.

Ms BRITNELL: Thank you, Acting Speaker. As I was describing, the bill talks about a committee that brings the six mountains together. I am talking about a committee and the exact same department and the challenges of having to make sure that when these structures are set up the government gets out of the way and makes sure there is enough ability for the businesses to do business in those regions with the land, which is a state asset that the government has management and ownership of. I was actually saying, before I was interrupted, that these businesses had so much challenge they actually walked away. I want to read from the Parks Victoria website. It says:

Please note, Princess Margaret Rose Cave and visitor centre remain closed for assessments and upgrade works. The campground and picnic area will be open for visitors and campers to enjoy during the Victorian and South Australian School Holiday periods only.

Ms Green: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the bill is not about the Princess Margaret Rose Cave. It is about the alpine resorts governance, and she is just defying rulings from the Chair and straying from the bill.

Ms BRITNELL: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, this legislation is about setting up a structure. I am referring to similar structures across the state where the government have worked so poorly with the community that businesses have closed and walked away—in Nelson, the Princess Margaret Rose Cave, the bait shed. These businesses have closed because of inept government interference.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Connolly): On the point of order, I can see a slight correlation there, if the member would resume her contribution.

Ms BRITNELL: Thank you. I will finish by saying this mismanagement by government was so obvious that the minister actually admitted it. The minister actually put into writing the fact that they could have done it better—did not go as far as an apology but certainly admitted they were wrong. We have still got businesses that are struggling to work with leases and public lands. When you do not have the innovation and the business approach, that is what will end up happening. So I hope this Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill does take heed from what we are seeing on the Great Ocean Road and what we have seen in South-West Coast with Nelson. These towns rely on businesses doing their bit, and if they have got so much trouble working with government that they walk away, that is not good for Victorian businesses. That is not good for tourism. We are about to try and rebuild and recover from a pandemic, and the way the government have been doing business for the last seven years has been disorganised. It is resulting in businesses walking away because they cannot work with government. Take note of the need for businesses to be innovative. Put the businesspeople in the discussions. Do not ignore them.

Mr CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (11:54): It is with some pleasure this morning that I rise to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I must say in reflecting on the elements in this bill I was also reflecting on the unique Australian landscape. Of course we have a very old landscape. We are one of the oldest continents on this planet, and we have mountains running effectively from Queensland all of the way down the eastern seaboard and then taking a hockey turn about where our alpine resorts are and heading across to South Australia. Geologically we have seen that whole area tectonically tilted and folded extensively.

What we see as a consequence of that is a very unique landscape from Victoria right through to southern New South Wales, and in that area we have the Victorian High Country and the New South Wales High Country. In an Australian context, a continent that is very hot and very dry, we have here a unique landscape that is quite high—in fact very high in an Australian context, not quite so high in a global context—where we as Victorians and visitors to our great state are able to take that great opportunity of going into that High Country and enjoying the experiences. Those experiences in some ways are unique depending on the time of the year when people might visit these unique landscapes. Of course famously it is where people can go in an Australian context to very much enjoy those winter sports of skiing and snowboarding and those types of experiences—cross-country skiing and all sorts of things. And in a summer context I know many people enjoy going into the High Country and enjoying the wildflowers that they might see and enjoying the tracks and the hikes and other things throughout that area.

What we have historically seen is a bit of a hotchpotch of government management arrangements where each resort has a number of competing government entities that have management responsibility for parts of those landscapes. Indeed we have got six alpine resort management committees that in so many ways have been attempting to do the same thing, which is to make the strategic plans and investments required to maintain those landscapes, to maintain the tourism opportunities and to protect the environment. I think in so many ways these unique landscapes require very fresh and new management structures to be put in place to manage the risk.

The way I would see those risks is they are very similar to the risks experienced along the Great Ocean Road and by many of our other remarkable natural landscapes, and that is competition from all of us who want to go there and experience the sights and delights and opportunities that exist in those areas. Not surprisingly we also see a number of risks from a changing climate. The reality is that climate change provides very unique challenges to these landscapes. Historically people have been able to go up to the alpine areas for many months of the year. I think the Queen’s Birthday weekend early in June is the start of the ski season, and people are often able to experience the delights of skiing in particular right through to the September school holidays. I know my family will often take up the opportunity of cross-country skiing in our September school holidays.

These risks require a landscape management authority to manage the broader landscape, and I think the creation of this new body provides and recognises that these unique and individual ski resorts are not in competition with one another, that we need to disentangle the management arrangements that do exist and in some ways, as I would see it, mirror the approach adopted so successfully by the minister around the new authority that is being set up to manage the Great Ocean Road and all of the various competing interests and priorities within that landscape.

I would very much imagine that once this authority is established there will be a bunch of strategic work that they will undertake and that they will build on the work of those previous committees. They will align their plans. They will align very much their investment priorities that they wish to make. Indeed they will put in place those streams of income and other things to enable them to invest in the region, to have a coherent plan of investment, to put in place the various strategies required to drive tourism and to drive the opportunities that might exist—but also to manage all of those landscape-wide risks that exist and that I have heard people across the chamber reflecting on, whether it be the fire season issues that come up from time to time or whether it be of course the changing climate and the risks associated with having a lesser period of snowfall and less opportunity that might come from that through to making sure that as a tourism driver for our economy in that High Country every opportunity is created to grow the season, to spread the opportunity, to spread the economic opportunity, to make the investments, to protect the landscape and the like.

As I say, the High Country is unique in continental Australia, here in Victoria and southern New South Wales. I know that the minister is keen to put in place management structures; that is why she has led this reform. I very much look forward to the substantial opportunities in the years to come, as I have no doubt there will be lots of opportunities to align our strategic plan across the alpine area. I have no doubt there will be more opportunity to spread and grow the tourism time that people engage in in the High Country and to provide those opportunities not just in the winter months but importantly through the summer months, when I know so many Victorians like going up into the High Country and enjoying those magnificent sunsets, those late-evening pastel colours that one sees in the landscape, those beautiful summer flowers and the like.

I had the great pleasure of spending some time near the High Country over this just-gone summer season. It is a fantastic landscape. It has got of course tens of thousands of years of Indigenous history. There are very strong Indigenous communities through the north-east of Victoria and into the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. We of course want to recognise at every opportunity, with every bill, the opportunity to bring into our structures, into our thinking, Indigenous cultural history and knowledge of our landscapes. I look forward to seeing that continue to grow. It is certainly a hallmark of this government that we recognise that Victoria was Indigenous land, is Indigenous land, and that they have the knowledge that we need to take our state forward, to recognise the opportunities and the challenges in our landscape.

I certainly very much commend the minister on this bill. I look forward to this bill passing both chambers, and I look forward to seeing the work unveiled over the years to come.

Mr R SMITH (Warrandyte) (12:04): It is a pleasure to rise for the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and I rise today with some intimate knowledge of the alpine resorts, having previously been the minister responsible for their operation. As the member for Eildon said, we will not be opposing this bill, and in fact I support the proposal that is put forward by the government with regard to putting the six resorts collectively under one board, one management operation. Indeed my issues, I guess, are in the way that this government will implement these particular proposals, as the implementation is probably more important than the policy proposal itself. We will wait and see how that goes, but in principle I think that the structure proposed by the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change is a sound one, and I say that because back in 2014 I actually commissioned a report into how to restructure the management of these particular alpine resorts—and I will come back to that shortly.

It is probably worth letting the house know of some of the history of the alpine resorts and the financial instability of some of them. I am absolutely 100 per cent in line with every other speaker in this house in talking about the benefits of these alpine resorts both from a tourism point of view but also in highlighting how important they are in terms of their environmental value. But the fact of the matter is that for many years the alpine resorts, particularly Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain, were an impost on the taxpayer. I do not necessarily mind that, in that I think there should be times when the government does prop up certain organisations or agencies for the greater good. Certainly the greater good in this instance was allowing Victorians to experience the environment in those areas, and the support for the local economies was also very important. But that does not mean that governments should not find the most efficient way of propping up those sorts of examples.

Now, back pre-2010 it was reported—actually, in 2013 it was reported—that the Mount Baw Baw Alpine Resort Management Board alone had received more than $13 million in taxpayer funding since 2008 but still reported a $2.3 million loss in 2011–12. Many commentators have commented on the fact that those alpine resorts did indeed cost the taxpayer money. In fact an Auditor-General’s report did say also that for Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain the financial sustainability assessment was that for the years 2008 through to 2011 there was a high risk with regard to their financial sustainability.

When I took the role of environment minister it was made very clear to me that there were some issues with the financial stability, and it was important to take some immediate action. So one of the things that I did then was appoint Belgravia Leisure to oversee the management of Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain. Now, pre that arrangement we were looking at a combined loss of about $2.5 million for those two resorts, and the taxpayer basically had to prop up those losses. Upon appointing Belgravia—the contract was confirmed in 2014—that loss went down to about $900 000. The following year, 2015, under their management and their strategies with bringing more people to the mountain, that loss dropped to just $600 000, which was a great benefit from the $2.5 million that the taxpayer had previously worn.

Now, what was disappointing was that with the advent of the Andrews government Belgravia was dismissed in December 2016. The management of those two mountains was given back to the local board and, by extension, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. In 2017 that loss had jumped to just over $1.4 million, and the following year, 2018, that loss had jumped to $1.8 million. So we can see that just by putting an external commercial manager in we significantly reduced the losses that were apparent and relieved the burden on the taxpayer. Removing that and going back to the previous arrangements by progress just made us continue to take those losses. It is a disappointment in that regard that the minister at the time thought that ideologically it was better to have it run by the department rather than save the taxpayer money. That is a significant disappointment.

The second-reading speech states that:

The establishment of Alpine Resorts Victoria will achieve savings through improved coordination, efficiencies of scale and reduction of duplication.

Again, I am supportive of that. As I said, what is disappointing is that while this legislation finds those financial efficiencies and reduces duplication, that was all in a report that I commissioned back in 2014. We would have implemented this had we won in 2014. This has been sitting in the department without actually having been shown to the minister—or maybe the minister saw it; I cannot speak to that. But the fact that this proposal to save the taxpayer money has been sitting in the department, sitting with the government, for the last eight years is quite disappointing. It should have been implemented earlier so the burden on the taxpayer could have been relieved a whole lot earlier.

Now, the member for Eildon told me that during the departmental briefing there was an inability to explain what savings would be made under the new structure and there was no opportunity to give any sort of detail. Again, in this report, while I understand the figures would have changed, there was quite a comprehensive list of where savings could be achieved and in what areas. In fact many different models were foreshadowed in this report. The report said that if we outsourced all the back office operations we could achieve a $1.5 million saving over the course of the year, and if we looked at bringing in an external manager, as was our experience with Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain, with the five resorts we could save about $2.4 million a year.

There was a suggestion that if we put a headlease on for each resort and the government received ongoing lease payments in that regard, it could save about $4.8 million. A single alpine board back then in 2014 would have achieved $5.5 million of savings. The best savings came from a collective headlease in the way that Thredbo is run. That would have achieved even more savings, but it was considered there were conflicting interests with regard to appointing that headlease, so the single alpine board was the best way to go. I just wonder if the minister is aware of a more comprehensive breakdown of where the savings would be made. As I said, this report from 2014 would at least give the department and the minister a guide to where to look for those savings so that we could comprehensively tell the public where those savings were going to be met.

I do not intend to speak for too much longer except to say that I just take issue with one of the lines in the second-reading speech, which says:

… alpine resort management arrangements are currently fragmented and lack coordination, with no over-arching plan or single authority to provide strategic leadership to the sector.

What I would say to that is that is the minister’s role. The minister’s role with relation to the alpine resorts is exactly summed up in that sentence, so if she is saying that there is not a plan, there is no authority to provide strategic leadership, that is a reflection on her. I worked very closely with the alpine resorts when I was minister, and that is exactly what I did—worked with the alpine resorts to give that strategic leadership, to coordinate the stakeholders and to make sure that there was an overarching plan. The single authority in this case is the minister—it is the government and by extension the minister—so to state that that is not there is an indictment of the minister, and I think that is something that really needs looking at.

In short, we are not opposing the bill. I support the structure as it is put forward. I am very concerned about the government’s ability to implement it with minimal disruption, and quantifying where those savings are going to be is certainly something that the minister should put forward to this house.

Ms CONNOLLY (Tarneit) (12:12): I too rise to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and we have heard some wonderful contributions in the house this morning about how incredible these resorts and Victoria’s alpine country are. Whether you are a tourist or whether you are lucky enough indeed for it to be part of your seat, it has been wonderful to hear about all the different offerings from many different resorts, most of which I have not yet been lucky enough to visit. But I do have something that comes to mind about the first time I came to Victoria many, many years ago; I think it must have been about 16 or 17 years ago. I did something that was quite out of my comfort zone—it most certainly would be now, and it was back then—but it was something I really wanted to do.

I was living in Canberra at the time, and the lovely young man that I had happened to move down there to be with, my now husband, had a really great idea for us both to head on up to Mount Stirling and do the Man from Snowy River horse ride up to Craig’s Hut. I did a bit of horseriding when I was much, much younger, in my childhood, although I do not know if my husband had ever been on a horse before. I remember we got up early and we drove from Canberra across the border, and one of the interesting highlights of the trip was stopping at Glenrowan, which both of us had never been to before. I think we even stopped there for scones on the way. I remember we stayed at this beautiful town, Merrijig, and the views from this town were absolutely breathtaking, because before us you could see the mountains shoot straight up—Mount Buller and Mount Stirling. I remember that the ride was a really long day and we had to be there really early, and I think it must have been from the foot of Mount Stirling. It was about 6 hours on horseback—3 hours up and 3 hours down. For someone who had not ridden for a very long time—that was me—and then for my husband, who had never really been on horseback before, it was a very intense ride up and a very intense ride down. I remember that night sitting on the balcony of the place that we were staying at in Merrijig, probably having a glass of wine, and both of us being unable to move. But I am talking about the highlights of that trip, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Our High Country is absolutely intoxicating. That was me as a young woman—the first real experience that I had in Victoria. It is one that sticks with me even today. I am looking forward to my children being of an age when we can take them on that same ride.

In Victoria we are really lucky to have an incredible alpine region with quite a few resorts. Depending on your budget and whether you have got a family or young kids, you really have a choice of places that you can go to. We have been to Mount Buller, although not in the ski season—not in winter. We did check it out in the summer, and like the member for Footscray talked about, we saw some pretty incredible people on mountain bikes—I think they were doing mountain bike downhill racing. Having just watched the Winter Olympics, and having spent most of the time watching that with my eyes closed because they seemed like such extreme sports these athletes were doing, watching downhill mountain bike racing at the top of Mount Buller was very, very extreme, but it certainly looked like everyone was having a really good time.

The other resort location that I went to, as the member for Yan Yean reminded me, was Lake Mountain. I remember taking the kids there when they were quite young and stopping at the bakery in Marysville before going up to the resort, where we were able to enjoy some very safe, very smooth downhill tobogganing with the kids. It was a lovely experience. It was just a daytrip from Melbourne—something very easy to do. To anyone listening today who has young children, I would encourage you to go there. It was absolutely fantastic. Our kids had a wonderful time.

This bill is such an important bill for our alpine regions. Our alpine regions have really been hit hard over the past two years with this global pandemic, and I am sure that they are looking forward to a bigger and brighter 2022 ski season as we start to turn our minds to winter this year. Hopefully tourists will be able to return in droves and do all of the things at these resorts that they have enjoyed for many, many years past and will enjoy for many, many years into the future.

Alpine Resorts Victoria is also going to be really good for looking at climate change and bringing together the resorts in our alpine region to have a strategy to help tackle the reality and the challenges facing them that climate change presents. It is a very important industry—$1.1 billion is not something that is easily dismissed. It is a $1.1 billion contribution to Victoria’s economy that this region makes, with up to 10 000 jobs locally. That is a lot of people that are able to get work up in our alpine region at these resorts each and every single year.

The bill will establish that new entity, Alpine Resorts Victoria. It is going to help manage all of the resorts in our alpine region and provide what really is an avenue for greater cohesion and, most importantly, efficiency in the management of these resorts. We want to see them up and running now and for many, many, many years into the future. Each of the local resort management boards have done a fantastic job of managing a lot of the issues and challenges that they have faced over the past couple of years, but ultimately they are really limited to their own little patch in the mountains. Some of these resorts are really big and some are on the smaller side, and that is why Alpine Resorts Victoria is going to merge them into one decision-making body. It is going to be more financially viable, ensuring that resorts are not losing money by maintaining individual boards. It is going to allow for greater coordination between resorts when it comes to tackling, as I mentioned, the big issues affecting the region, like climate change. It is also going to allow our resorts to work together, to plan and develop that strategy and rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID. It is also a great opportunity, as we have heard from members on this side of the house, for the alpine industry to develop a closer working relationship with many of our First Nations people, who do have a very deep and profound spiritual connection to that region. The bill is going to require that the combined skills of board members cover a range of experience. They are going to include financial management and commercial skills, tourism and alpine activities, environmental management and conservation, as well as public administration and governance.

In conclusion, this bill is all about helping our alpine resorts to get back on track and look forward to a bigger and brighter future. We know that so much of the industry has faced challenges due to COVID and is still facing challenges, as it has in the past, in relation to tackling climate change. They need leadership, they need direction and they need to be able to meet those challenges head on together. That is what this bill is going to do; it is going to bring them together. For the thousands of Victorians who rely on the industry each and every single year, this bill is going to help pave a future for those local jobs—10 000 of them. It is also going to provide a future for those who love to head to the snow for the holidays. I really hope that in years to come—I am not sure if it will be this year—my family and I will finally be able to get to experience the winter wonderland that I know so many Victorians and people from across this country experience in our alpine regions. I truly look forward to that. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (12:22): I wish to contribute this afternoon on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I think in order for the Parliament and the people of Victoria to truly appreciate the value of this legislation we must look at not what the government says but what the government does. When perusing this piece of legislation over the last week I could not help but notice great similarities with a piece of legislation the government brought to this chamber, passed and inflicted upon the people of Victoria only two years ago, and that of course was the legislation to establish the single authority the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority.

Mr T Bull: How’s that going?

Mr RIORDAN: It’s a real winner for Victoria—not.

Before I go further on the areas of concern that the good people of the alpine regions have identified I will acknowledge the fact that the workers, communities and people in our alpine resort regions, like those along the Great Ocean Road, have done it really tough for the last two years. One thing I know from my area, and I am sure it has come from the consultation we have had with people in the alpine region, is they know only too well that they cannot afford another year of disruption and chaos in the way they run their resorts and their communities. So when the government offers them the opportunity for one big new authority that will help govern them strategically, protect them from climate change and resolve 200 years of treaty negotiation, those communities will expect to benefit from it.

Let us look, for example, at some of the concerns alpine communities have had and let us measure that up against the reality of what this government has managed to do with an almost identical authority. One of the concerns is clarity around funding. Like we are talking about here, combining the six alpine resorts, we combined the communities along the Great Ocean Road. What do we know about that? We know that the little community in Peterborough has lost the $200 000 per year that was used to service that community. It was rushed through and amalgamated into this great new entity so that the new bureaucratic system could be funded. We also know that a second piece of legislation was rushed through this Parliament only last year to give the Great Ocean Road Authority new taxing powers. The new Great Ocean Road Authority can implement parking fees and tolls and all sorts of charges and fees on people’s homes and communities in the Great Ocean Road region, so one could expect that this will be a mechanism that this cash-strapped, money-grubbing government will clearly inflict upon the alpine communities into the future. We could expect that.

It says communities were worried that larger resorts may be forced to prop up smaller resorts. Well, that is a fair concern, and I am sure the smaller resorts want their own identity and want to be self-funding. But we can tell those smaller resorts that that is exactly what will happen—that money will be sucked from all the communities to keep the instrumentality up. It is causing great hardship—just ask the Peterborough and Princetown CFAs, who no longer have their local community funding because it is all being funnelled through to prop up the Great Ocean Road Authority.

The minister and the government have told us that we are going to have cost savings through this project. The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has not been able to quantify what those cost savings are, but let us look at the cost saving that we have received on the Great Ocean Road. It is zero, absolutely zero. In fact by the time the new Great Ocean Road Authority built its new multimillion-dollar head office, conveniently located all the way at one end of the Great Ocean Road in Torquay, by the time they got all their new consultants, not to mention the probably many hundreds of thousands or a million on a brand new logo—which was I think the first thing they undertook, because emptying rubbish bins, servicing toilets and making visitor experiences better has not yet come onto their radar. We have got a new head office, new logos, new paperwork and probably business cards—those types of important things have been seen to—but the cost savings, well, they have not yet been seen on the Great Ocean Road.

It has been raised by operators in the alpine region that there is a lack of acknowledgement of the importance of private enterprise and how it is private enterprise that actually drives investment and visitor numbers. It is not the taxpayer and it is not a government department that make our visitor experiences in Victoria dynamic and wonderful and make places that people and visitors and overseas guests want to come to. So what do we know has happened about private enterprise, that verve that we need so desperately in Victoria? Two years after the Great Ocean Road Authority was established what do we know? There are two caravan parks now sitting idle, empty and without operators. The busiest single Parks Victoria asset at the Cape Otway lighthouse, employing 45 people—a beacon of employment, opportunity and visitor numbers—guess what? In June this year it shuts, and what is the department’s response? They do not have a response. What is the Great Ocean Road Authority’s response? ‘Oh, we haven’t determined who owns that and who’s going to manage it and how it’s going to be operated’. It is going to sit idle.

So the people of the alpine communities will absolutely have great concerns about whether this government is capable of implementing a single authority when the one single authority managing tourism, managing fragile coastal assets, managing climate change, managing visitor numbers and most importantly being prepared to work with local communities has zero runs on the board after two years with, quite frankly, zero outcomes on the horizon. And that is not just me saying that. You can talk to the tourism bodies. You can talk to the local communities. You can do what I did last week and spend some time with some traditional owners down on country at Hordern Vale. They told me that after two years they cannot even get a reply to letters to the new committee and the new organisation, because it is not acting in the interests of the local community but it is acting in the interests of the department and it is acting in the interests of the government’s agenda of the day, and they are in complete contrast and conflict with the needs and desires of those local communities that rely so heavily on those assets.

What do we know about board composition? Because often that is what drives it. We can make our determinations about how well this government drives, but what about the board composition? The Great Ocean Road is made up of three shires predominantly. It is made up of lots of vibrant businesspeople who have had a lot of success and driven those economies so well. After all the rhetoric about the importance of one authority they put one local businessperson from the whole area onto that board. We have got a former premier’s wife, we have got friends from Melbourne and we have got people with long histories with the Labor Party on the board, but have we got local input? No, we have very little input. And I might venture to say that the one local person feels at times that he is carrying the burden of the whole area on his shoulders, because no-one else in those communities gets to talk to anyone. So the people in our alpine communities can quite rightly feel concerned that they will lose local control, that they will lose local input and that the area that they love so much, that is so important to them and that drives those local economies, will be completely left out as they go along.

Another important stakeholder of course in the alpine communities will be the local government areas. I can tell the people in the alpine communities with absolute certainty that after two years we still do not have agreements on who empties rubbish bins in the Great Ocean Road area. Can you imagine something as simple as this: tourists turn up for two months of the year, make one hell of a mess between Christmas and New Year and after two years we still have not even got a plan about who empties the rubbish bins. We have not sorted out who pays for the toilet paper. We have not got anyone prepared to take responsibility for the public open spaces and the rotundas and those essential community assets.

The people of the alpine communities will need to be on watch. They will need to keep an eye out. They will need to be careful of the tax and charge implications. Will the locals be targeted to pick up the bill for lack of funding, lack of support and lack of genuine commitment by this government to create an entity that on paper makes sense? It is a good idea to strategically manage our alpine communities, but it is not a good idea to create a highly politicised body that may serve to undermine the local community, disregard the needs of business and disregard the needs of real traditional owners who operate in the area and that want to have some input into that, not the political machines in Melbourne that are driving greater agendas. A single authority to manage our alpine resorts has great potential, but I fear for them greatly, based on the examples this government has led, such as with the Great Ocean Road.

Mr BRAYNE (Nepean) (12:32): I also rise to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. This government is obviously committed to protecting and enhancing Victoria’s tourist destinations, and this bill is a clear example of this. Victoria is home to some of the greatest tourist destinations in the world. Whether it is the alpine region, the Great Ocean Road, as was mentioned quite a few times in that speech—

Mr Edbrooke: Or Frankston!

Mr BRAYNE: or Frankston, as the member for Frankston points out, or the Mornington Peninsula just south of Frankston, our state truly is one of the best places to come and visit. That is why legislation that protects and enhances our tourist destinations is so important.

As a member in an area with high tourist rates, I understand the importance of tourism to my electorate’s local economy. So many businesses in my community rely on increased visitation to the peninsula to run their small business or receive more work over the busy holiday periods in order to get through the less busy winters. A strong summer season is critical for the Mornington Peninsula as a strong winter season is critical for the alpine regions.

Unfortunately of course, like everything, COVID-19 has had such a big impact on the businesses on the peninsula who are so reliant on tourism. Our local businesses have done it tough over the past two years. From decreased visitation to staffing shortages, they have had to deal with so many challenges, and yet despite the failings of our country to prepare for the eventual complete opening up with a suitable amount of rapid antigen tests, this summer was still a bumper one. Many people enjoyed the ability to get out and about, with the businesses I have spoken to having reported good earnings. Maybe it is just my days at the Dromana drive-in—another business reliant on visitation, on top of the many locals who love that icon—but I personally love seeing everyone down on the peninsula, because it usually means that it is summer. And if it is summer, it is the best time of the year.

But for some the winter season is the best time of the year. Some people actually like going outside when it is freezing cold and trudging around in snow—many people in fact. Our alpine resorts are heavily visited, not just by those living in Victoria but by many interstate and international visitors. On the few occasions—and I note ‘few’—I have visited alpine regions for the snow season, many of the tourism facilities were staffed by international snow-loving visitors. With the Winter Olympics having just drawn to a close, it is an apt time to talk about our alpine regions and what we can do to better manage them.

Victoria is home to four alpine resorts that cover six mountains: the Southern Alpine Resort, the Mount Hotham Alpine Resort, the Falls Creek Alpine Resort and the Mount Buller and Mount Stirling Alpine Resort. Each one has its own unique characteristics that make this region such a special place for people to visit. Each one of these resorts also has many businesses around the resort that are directly connected to a good season and high visitation to the resort, whether that be the restaurants, the ski hire shops, the supermarkets or the many other businesses. Quite opposite to the Mornington Peninsula, as I said earlier, all of these businesses need the resort to have a bumper season in the winter to get through the less busy summer.

While the resorts are tremendous drawcards for many, this region is facing many challenges. For one, it is expensive to establish and maintain tourist infrastructure, especially when most of the region’s tourism occupies a small window each year. As mentioned by many of the other speakers who have spoken on this bill, climate change is also having a huge, significant impact on the region, changing the nature of the snow season and increasing the threat of bushfires. The bushfire season over the 2019–20 summer was absolutely devastating for the alpine region and compounded the difficulties that many had with continuing insurance given the reticence of insurers to support those resorts.

Finally, the pandemic has also affected the region, as it has affected all regions, with many of the issues that affected the Mornington Peninsula also impacting the slopes. The pandemic was just devastating for these alpine regions given that the lockdowns were mostly in place during the winter seasons. Fortunately for areas like the Mornington Peninsula the summer business seasons were never overly impacted by the lockdowns, but of course during the winter this was devastating for the resorts. The resorts were forced to refund passes already purchased, further devastating these businesses.

The combination of all of these issues has presented a real challenge to the individual boards of the alpine resorts. As such, it is important that we are thinking ahead and doing what we can to support the governance of this important part of our state. That is why it is time to reform the governance of our alpine regions.

I will now turn to the specifics of this legislation. This bill proposes to abolish the individual resort management boards and the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council and bring them all together under one organisation, Alpine Resorts Victoria, or ARV. There are five key aims of the proposed reforms, which include financial stability and improving the economic viability of the alpine resorts, modernising governance to improve transparency and accountability, strengthening long-term climate mitigation, improving efficiency through greater coordination and COVID-19 recovery and improving resilience.

In order to achieve these goals the Alpine Resorts (Management) Act 1997 will be amended. In addition to this amendment the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning will be working with stakeholders to develop an operating and financial model as well as a transition plan to ensure that ARV is sustainable. The creation of ARV is a significant step for the alpine region that will see this tourist region better governed and in turn better enjoyed by locals and visitors alike.

However, for these improvements to be made, ARV will have to consider the following principles alongside the existing activities that the current boards undertake. These principles include protecting the unique characteristics of each alpine resort; planning for and managing all alpine resorts in a coordinated manner; responding to the impacts and risks of climate change; considering the ongoing impacts of the use of the resorts on natural and cultural features; respecting, protecting and promoting Aboriginal self-determination; partnering with traditional owners in policy development, planning and decision-making; protecting and enhancing the amenity and access of each alpine resort; and promoting investment in a diverse range of tourism and recreational experiences. These principles are varied but are all necessary to protect and enhance the alpine region. These principles also include economic characteristics which include the financial and economic contribution of the private sector.

Furthermore, the protection of the region’s ecology and ensuring that the effects of climate change are accounted for are also key principles which must be considered. Finally, this legislation acknowledges the unique connection that the traditional owners of the land have with country, and it is a commitment of ARV that it will work with these groups to protect the alpine region. Respecting, protecting and promoting Indigenous cultural values, practices, heritage and knowledge is so important, and this government is committed to doing just that.

The reforms outlined in this legislation also require ARV to have a skills-based board that covers various areas of expertise, including alpine environments, activities and tourism, financial management and economic development, natural resources management, cultural knowledge and authority from experience as a traditional owner of land in alpine resorts, environmental conservation, and public administration and governance. Given the broad range of skills that this legislation mandates, ARV will have a stronger strategic purpose and will be well placed to achieve the principles set out earlier. Overall the combination of ARV’s principles and areas of expertise will go a long way to protecting and enhancing the alpine region for many years to come and assisting it to bounce back from this really, really difficult period of time.

This bill will see this tourist region reformed and better able to deal with the challenges it is facing. Meanwhile locals and visitors alike will still be able to go out and enjoy Victoria’s best slopes as we get back to doing what we all love. There will be no loss of resort operations jobs, with the number of frontline operational roles across the resorts being maintained and staff supported during the transition to the new entity. The bill also includes transitional provisions to ensure that all existing staff of the alpine resort management boards will become employees of ARV on the same terms and conditions and with no break in service. This will also extend to non-executive staff members of an existing alpine resort management board, who will be employed on the same terms and conditions as they are currently under.

This legislation will help protect and enhance one of Victoria’s best tourist destinations. This bill is another example of the Andrews government’s proud record of protecting our natural treasures. I am committed to upholding our state’s reputation as a global tourist destination, including the Mornington Peninsula. I am proud to say that I support this legislation. I commend it to the house.

Mr EDBROOKE (Frankston) (12:42): If I were not in the chamber, I would be saying right now, ‘Let’s have a big round of applause for the member for Nepean’. He is an absolute hard worker, a legend in that community. As the member for the gateway to the Mornington Peninsula I often hear from people living on the Mornington Peninsula or people who are tourists down there, and he gets a very good rap. He is a very, very hard worker as well.

I rise today to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I guess my experience with these areas is somewhat clouded by my career and my work, which has taken me to these areas, but I will get to that a little bit later. Importantly, as has been spoken about previously, we are talking about a land that has a certain culture and a spiritual connection to people in our community, so I want to acknowledge the close cultural and spiritual connection to Victoria’s alpine country maintained by Victoria’s first peoples. Groups with formal recognition and registered Aboriginal party status over the areas of these six alpine resorts we are talking about are, and please excuse my pronunciation, the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, the Taungurung Land & Waters Council and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation. There are some other groups that care and have connection with the Victorian high country. They are the Dhudhuroa Waywurru Nations Aboriginal Corporation and the Duduroa Dhargal Aboriginal Corporation.

It goes without saying that people who own businesses in these areas do it tough. Whether it is fires or whether it is COVID, it has been quite tough for them, and I think what this legislation brings to them is a coordination and a better regulated response, which is more efficient. We have heard members across the chamber speaking about that and the need for that over the years.

This bill will abolish the four alpine resort management boards—namely, the Falls Creek board, the Mount Hotham board, the Mount Buller and Mount Stirling board and the Southern board—and the coordinating council for the alpine areas as well. The bill establishes Alpine Resorts Victoria (ARV) as a statutory body corporate to govern all alpine resorts with functions and powers commensurate with the existing boards, so we are establishing that Alpine Resorts Victoria authority. The bill will modernise and strengthen governance arrangements, including through the establishment of a skills-based board.

The bill provides for legislative recognition of the traditional owner connection to the alpine country and places obligations on ARV to engage and involve traditional owners in decision-making for resorts. I stand here as a very proud member of this government, who are pushing ahead with the nation’s first treaty process for our traditional owners—people that have been here for over 60 000 years. Sovereignty was never ceded. As an elder put it to me quite recently, ‘Paul, everywhere you stand in Frankston there was probably an Indigenous baby born there, so you need to tread gently and respect that as well’, and I certainly do.

My relationship with Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula is, I think, very well known. I am a huge advocate for that area. We have got tourists coming back. It is fantastic. I am very at home where there is a beach, but the second place I love is the High Country—the solace. I am even booking something at the moment. There is a little hut in one of those areas that is out of the way; it is not connected to any power. To just get away up there for 24 hours would be quite magnificent.

Mr Halse: Off the grid. Fantastic.

Mr EDBROOKE: Off the grid. That is right. My connection with that land has basically been through fires. With a couple of people I work with we made a pact to go back when these areas have regenerated and give to those businesses.

Ms Green interjected.

Mr EDBROOKE: Yes, firefighter Allan from Frankston; fire officer Allan these days—he is a legend. With a mate of mine I have made a pact to go back to these places—we did that after Black Saturday in Marysville, Kinglake, Kinglake West—and make sure that we contribute to their economy as tourists, because unlike what we heard from one particular member, tourists are not there to just mess up the place, throw rubbish around and make a job for the local councils. Tourism is the main economic development contributor to these communities, and they rely on it, just like we have heard many businesses on the Mornington Peninsula do.

One of the most exciting things I have done was not riding horses up there, as the member for Tarneit has done, but a bit of downhill mountain biking. I was a keen dirt bike rider, motocross rider, for some time. I think it is a case that the older you get the better you were, and I like to talk about that in those terms. But I did a bit of mountain biking—cross-country, downhill—until I came off, and I came off quite badly. Lots of people around me were laughing, but I could not laugh; I was quite sore. So I went to the doctor up there. I got in. It was a typical country doctor. It reminded me of A Country Practice: you walk in, you wait—lovely people at the front desk. And they had seen this a million times before: some young smart alec with a mountain bike comes up and takes a spill in the first 5 minutes. I said to the doctor, ‘Look, I’m a bit sore here’, and he said, ‘We’ll get you some X-rays and everything’. He said, ‘How long have you been mountain bike riding?’. I said, ‘A little while—got the muscles going, I’ve been riding bikes and all that kind of stuff’. He looked down at my quads and he said—

Mr Richardson: Beast.

Mr EDBROOKE: He did not say ‘beast’, member for Mordialloc. I quote this doctor: ‘Junior, I’ve seen more meat on a butcher’s pencil. So you can continue mountain bike riding around here or you could take up another hobby, one with a motor maybe. You’ll have just as much fun, and you probably won’t have to come back and visit me’. It is like the old stories we have heard of country doctors and country police officers: they always steer you in the right direction. I sold that mountain bike for a loss, but I did feel that his advice was probably for the best. I have never had a chance to actually tell that story and say, ‘I’ve seen more meat on a butcher’s pencil’. I had never heard that before. But, yes, I have not skipped leg day since.

Back to the bill, though. It is quite obvious that everyone in this chamber has a passion and a commitment to the High Country. I heard the member for Warrandyte’s contribution—we throw a couple of sticks and stones across the chamber at times, but I think there is a mutual respect—and it made sense. I think this bill does follow on from some work of successive governments to ensure that the boards that are regulating businesses up there and driving that tourism are synced and have a common goal and are not working against each other. I have heard a little bit about that today. I would not go out there and say I know anything about that, but certainly we know that, especially when times are tough—with fires, COVID, whatnot—it is efficiency that keeps these businesses afloat. If they can drive the dollar further in the good times, it means they can outlast the bad times, which we know they need to. The good times up there will be many and varied in the coming years. We need these areas where these previous boards have been to be working together. They are very unique areas, but when they work together we will get the best outcome. I think that is what this bill is about.

Again, it is very, very important that we highlight that the establishment of the board, Alpine Resorts Victoria, takes into account and partners with the traditional owners in policy development, planning and decision-making. Also, the establishment of Alpine Resorts Victoria will achieve the savings and efficiencies that I have previously spoken about through that improved coordination and through the efficiencies of scale and reduction and duplication. It will build a capability to undertake integrated strategic and sector-wide planning for the common challenges that these unique areas face. There are common challenges. Those challenges include issues associated with climate change and helping the sector recover from COVID and bushfires.

I think everyone in the chamber knows I am a huge advocate for tourism on the peninsula, as I think everyone would be. I love the beach, but you cannot beat some of these areas. I pay my respects to the MPs who are travelling in and who represent the people in these areas, because they are huge areas and there are lots of opinions to take on board. I would also like to congratulate the minister and the minister’s staff on this great bill, which I commend to the house.

Mr HALSE (Ringwood) (12:52): It is a pleasure to get up and speak this afternoon after the member for Frankston on this bill, the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. There has been some really interesting discussion about the Victorian High Country, the experiences that people have had in our Victorian High Country and the extraordinarily unique landscape, topography and geography that are in the Victorian High Country, one of the great regions of our state. It demonstrates the great diversity of our state that you can be skiing down a double black diamond on Mount Buller one day and surfing on the coast on another, such is the great diversity of our natural environment here in Victoria.

I would like to thank the minister for bringing this bill before the chamber today. I think the minister—just on a brief tangent that is applicable to this bill—has had a good week because she has demonstrated the real importance of the action that the Andrews Labor government is taking on climate change, and that intersects really clearly with the bill before us right now and the impacts that climate change, as some have noted during their contributions, global warming and added pollution in our environment will have on the High Country and the viability of the High Country. So this bill right now before the house is timely, and it is another example of the minister’s foresight as we continually seek to tackle climate change here in Victoria and we continue to be a leader in this space.

I want to highlight just a few key elements of the bill that have been traversed widely throughout the course of this debate. It is good to see that the opposition is supporting this bill. Then I want to reflect on some personal experiences in the High Country recently and some of the really fine contributions from members in the chamber. But as has been noted, this bill is for the establishment of the brand new Alpine Resorts Victoria body, which will replace the current system of four separately operating alpine resorts with one cohesive body. This renewed governance scheme will strategically and more holistically respond to the sector’s financial and climate change-related challenges. Specifically the bill will abolish the existing four alpine resort management boards—Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller and Mount Stirling—and the Southern board, which manages Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw.

As we have heard through the course of the debate, there have been some fond memories of people going up and getting on the skis or on the snowboard and enjoying our great High Country. I am sure the member for Mordialloc probably jumps up occasionally and has a go on the sliders and heads down and has a go at the black runs up at Mount Buller or Mount Hotham. Many of us have enjoyed the alpine region. Just over the summer break I had the opportunity to get up to Bright and travel through that area of the world. I tell you what, it is a beautiful area through Myrtleford, and then you get to Bright. I got on the bike and did some riding up to Mount Beauty.

Mr Edbrooke interjected.

Mr HALSE: I did a bit of quad work, yes—I think that was the comment from the member for Frankston. It is a beautiful area of the world. Pick a season and there is a reason to be in the Victorian High Country.

Ms Crugnale interjected.

Mr HALSE: For every season there is a reason—yes, that is right, member for Bass. But I just want to touch upon some of the really important things that are being incorporated into this bill. There is a focus on making sure that there is a really strong First Nations voice, and I know that many speakers here have commented on that. I have just got with me here—he is a controversial figure, or has been made into a controversial figure—Bruce Pascoe’s new book with Bill Gammage called Country. It talks about fire and it talks about the natural landscape and the embedded knowledge of our First Nations people in managing and advising on and protecting and being the stewards of a land that is ancient that they have been the custodians of for tens of thousands of years, and that that language is embedded into this bill I think is deeply important. It is not just a throwaway line in a piece of legislation, it actually goes to what we as a government are about: making sure that we acknowledge our First Nations peoples, our First Nations comrades, and their unique place with managing the natural resources and the environment right across our state. I am very pleased that that has been drawn upon. The member for Oakleigh made that point in a significant way.

I noticed that the member for Box Hill also spoke about the recent Winter Olympics and noted the silver medal winning snowboarder Scotty James, who is from my patch of the world. He used to train at a gym just a few kilometres from where I live. He is a tremendous Australian athlete. It has been the most successful Winter Olympics team that Australia has ever had. That shows the passion, particularly here in Victoria, for snow sports. We are the centre of snow sports here in Australia, and that is why we need a management system and a board system that appropriately responds to the challenges that are before us right now and that will confront us right into the future. He also spoke about taking the kids up to have a go on the slopes.

Sitting suspended 1.00 pm until 2.01 pm.

Business interrupted under standing orders.