Wednesday, 3 May 2023

Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (19:07): (145) My adjournment debate tonight is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek from the Minister for Environment is that she come and join me – and I would be more than happy for her to join me on 12 May, when the Leader of the Opposition John Pesutto comes with me – along the Great Ocean Road to visit some of the communities in the Colac Otway shire, the Corangamite shire and the Surf Coast shire who are continually being hampered, held back, frustrated and ignored by the current government about the development of the Great Ocean Road and the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority.

The Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority in essence was something that initially had a bit of bipartisan support, and that is not something that comes easily in this place. But back when it was first proposed there was a general agreement that we can manage this great natural asset for the state of Victoria in a much more constructive way. However, the implementation of this authority has been nothing short of catastrophic along the ocean road. The Torquay Rotary motor show, which has been on the foreshore at Torquay for some 20 or more years, has been hampered. The Anglesea Motor Yacht Club has had funds put aside and is desperate to get some critical erosion work done to help protect its marvellous clubroom and assets. Of course the Point Grey development in Lorne has just stalled for years and years and years. You have got the fishermen’s club down there. They have literally got the money in the bank to do the development, yet they cannot get the approvals. Only in the lead-up to this budget this government has decided to cut the funds from the very long awaited Skenes Creek boardwalk into town so the people from Skenes Creek can walk and commute safely into Apollo Bay without being run over on one of the busiest tourist roads. That funding is being cut. That community is furious about that. They are furious that their caravan park, which has provided a coffee stop and a bit of a community hub in Skenes Creek, has been closed up. The ‘We’re closed now till November’ signs have reappeared, and that community has been robbed of that great little community hub. We have got the Point Bunbury walk which goes around the Apollo Bay golf course. That has been closed to the public. It has been there forever, and we have now got people wanting to access the sea having to walk across a golf course, threatened with being hit by golf balls, rather than safely walking around the outside.

But most egregious is the compulsory acquisition of the land at the Twelve Apostles. This government have trumpeted they are going to be spending $108 million, and I have it on great authority that the compensation to the landowners will roughly be between $50 million and $60 million, which means there simply will not be enough funds to get that development up and going. I ask the minister to come down, visit us and see what the concerns of the locals are.