Constituency questions
Ripon electorate
Ms STALEY (Ripon) (14:37): (6226) My constituency question is to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, who I note is in the chamber. I ask her to review and repeal her recent changes to firewood collection regulations across central Victoria. In my electorate of Ripon I have many people who collect firewood for heating. The borders for these firewood zones are now close to the borders of various places in Ripon, and it means that people can no longer collect firewood in the places where they have collected it for a long time and do not have access to other sources of firewood. These changes I believe came out of the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council changes that will phase out firewood collection, and this is the first part of it. I oppose those changes, as do most people in Ripon. I completely oppose this change and ask her to review it.