Wednesday, 6 March 2024

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2023–24 Budget Estimates

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (10:17): I rise to speak today on the Public Accounts and Estimate Committee report on the 2023–24 budget estimates. I have got two areas that I am going to cover today. Firstly, I am going to go back to chapter 6, which is the Department of Transport and Planning ‍– it starts at page 87 – around roads. We know that there is a budget allocation for roads, as there always is, for the asset and output funding, but we know that we do not see very much of it in my electorate at all. In fact the cuts in this area are quite disturbing.

I am going to actually focus today on a particular stretch of road. Don Road in Don Valley is an approximately 1.2-kilometre stretch from the Home Hotel in Launching Place on the Warburton Highway to the township of Don Valley. It is in one of the worst conditions that I have seen. It is really quite surprising how bad this little stretch of road is. It is a major thoroughfare for people travelling between Healesville and Yarra Junction and obviously the people who live in the community of Don Valley as they move out to do their shopping in larger towns. I have questions for the minister. When will this road be fixed? Minister, can you please outline for the people of Don Valley and those who use this road regularly what works are scheduled and when they will occur? It worries me greatly that some of the smallest communities miss out on roads funding, and it is really important that they are not forgotten about.

I am now going to refer to chapter 9, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, from page 145, and specifically the area of agriculture. I note that there has been $454.8 million of departmental funding and that there have been changes in that agriculture portfolio, because it has transferred from the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, or the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions now, to DEECA. Sometimes programs get a little bit lost when they are transferred, and agriculture is something that is particularly important to me.

What I am raising today is the issue of wild dogs. Wild dogs remain a huge problem in many areas in my electorate, whether it is Hoddles Creek and Yellingbo in the Yarra Ranges, Pauls Range in Dixons Creek or in the Mansfield shire at Merrijig towards Tolmie or now even at Goughs Bay – and that is quite disturbing because Goughs Bay is on Lake Eildon, and it is a top tourism destination. People go there, flock there in summer, and when you have got an interaction of wild dogs and people, that is not a good outcome.

I want to talk about the problem with the wild dogs, firstly, in the Yarra Valley. I have had people contact my office very recently about some attacks at the end of February. In Beenak Road in Hoddles Creek we had four sheep attacked, all requiring veterinary care. I have been to and met with residents in the area in Hoddles Creek, and they have told me about the packs of dogs that they see traversing their properties but also on public land. My area is particularly heavily forested, and we need some greater work in this area.

The department are having drop-in sessions in Hume and in Gippsland, but they are not having any in the Yarra Valley. We have, at Dixons Creek, Pauls Range. I have been out to farms there where the sheep have been attacked because they border the forest, so the dogs come in. We have got nothing happening down there with these drop-in sessions, which are forming the government’s plan for coming on. So, Minister, will you please schedule a drop-in session so that the residents in Dixons Creek, the upper Yarra, Yellingbo and Hoddles Creek can go and put their two bob’s worth in?

I know that in Mansfield this has been a problem for a long time, in the High Country. When you have a deer problem, which we have got, every deer that dies, that is shot and left, is a meal for wild dogs, and the wild dog numbers explode. We need greater work. I do hope that the wild dog management plan is looked at favourably in the coming budget and is extended. We need a guarantee that there will be ongoing support to continue to allow wild dog controllers to bait and trap on private land and within 3 kilometres of private property. I think many people in city areas do not understand the issue of wild dogs that breed in the wild but also dogs that are let go or lost that become feral. It is really heartbreaking to see some of the photos of sheep that have been attacked and lambs that have been taken because of the wild dogs, and a lot needs to be done to prevent it. I hope in the budget we get a favourable outcome.