Wednesday, 5 June 2019

 Mr BLACKWOOD (Narracan) (19:04): (740) I raise a matter for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, and the action I seek is for her to direct her department to immediately take action to address the infestation of noxious weeds in the Glen Nayook Reserve. The Glen Nayook nature reserve has been maintained by the Friends of Glen Nayook for about 15 years. With regular working bees, they have put thousands of volunteer hours into maintaining the walking tracks and keeping the park in excellent condition. Over the past few years the blackberry infestation has been getting gradually worse, as no action is being taken by Parks Victoria to address this problem despite persistent pleading from the friends group.

Another year has passed and there has been no action to address the blackberry infestation at Glen Nayook. In fact it will be four years on 3 July since the friends group first notified Parks Victoria in 2015 that there was a problem with blackberries. During the last working bee it was observed that the blackberry patches are expanding exponentially and the friends group are sure that the seeds are being transferred to the neighbouring properties.

Minister D’Ambrosio issued a ministerial decree, outlining that it was Parks Victoria’s responsibility to control such infestations, and I quote:

Parks Victoria are responsible for managing established weeds and pests on public land, including in parks.

Parks Victoria works with the Department of Environment and Primary Industries, other land managers, landowners and community groups to manage weeds in parks.

The four objectives for weed management are to:

Prevent their spread by making sure equipment and vehicles are clean of seeds and spores

Eradicate small infestations that are unlikely to have spread beyond a definable boundary

Contain infestations where they can be prevented from expanding beyond a defined containment line

Protect assets (e.g. native plants and animals, neighbouring agricultural land) from the impacts of invasive weeds by reducing population densities.

So I call on the minister to ensure her department adheres to her decree and immediately takes action to protect the magnificent amenity of the Glen Nayook nature reserve, and by doing so acknowledge the tremendous contribution the Friends of Glen Nayook have made for many years in assisting Parks Victoria with the maintenance of the reserve.