Wednesday, 16 August 2023

 Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (19:00): (291) The action I seek in this evening’s adjournment debate is for the Minister for Environment in the other place, and the action I seek is for the minister to intervene on a recent ongoing decision by GORCAPA, which is the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority, on the abandonment of the outdoor lease area that the Lorne aquatic club has been occupying since COVID. The beautiful Point Grey at Lorne is well known to any visitors to the Lorne area – it is where the pier precinct is – and under the newly formed GORCAPA it has been nothing but a sort of endless conga line and cavalcade of inaction and poor decision-making, which has seen one of the most popular and iconic spots along the whole beautiful Great Ocean Road left to abandonment. There was much angst in the community on the closing of the Lorne pier restaurant, which was a great venue for people on a sunny day – and I note the Minister for Police across the table; I think he spent many a long and seedy afternoon in that beautiful spot – but it is now closed and abandoned.

In the absence of somewhere for the community to be able to sit and enjoy one of the most beautiful spots on the Victorian coastline and perhaps even the Australian coastline, it seems bizarre that a government that says it is interested in regional tourism, interested in looking after and building strength and resilience in our local coastal communities, would decide arbitrarily ‘That’s it. Sorry, guys. That beautiful little piece of land that does not have any other purpose, we’re now not going to let you let people sit out there and have a coffee and a drink and enjoy the beautiful north-facing aspect.’ It is a great disappointment.

So Minister, I call upon you, really, to act in a way that just gives guidance to GORCAPA. It has an important role in looking after the environment, but it also has a critical role in supporting local communities, and our local coastal communities rely very heavily on that public open space that the foreshores deliver to our country towns. Whether you are in Port Campbell, Apollo Bay, Wye River, Lorne, Aireys Inlet, Anglesea, Torquay or wherever you might be along our beautiful Great Ocean Road, those public open spaces are now controlled by this government, essentially through GORCAPA. It is a disappointment that this action has happened, and it seems that the committee and the members of the Lorne aquatic club have been unable to progress their case to the government and to the authority. So I would urge you, Minister, to intervene and suggest very, very strongly that this is a good thing to do and that the environment and the needs of the local community and visitors alike can be equally managed for the benefit of the environment and of the local community.