Wednesday, 10 September 2025

 Darren CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (10:01): Last year of course many people experienced the real, profound challenges that came from Australia’s cost-of-living crisis. The Allan government responded with a whole raft of different cost-of-living measures, one of which was very important to our regional tourism economy, that being the free camping initiative. This initiative provided many families with the opportunity of taking up a family holiday that they otherwise may not have been able to fund. Not only was this important for those individual members and those families, but it was also important for underpinning small business and jobs in our tourism economies, particularly areas like the Grampians, like the Great Ocean Road and like the Gippsland Lakes. These are important parts to the Victorian economy. This free camping initiative I think helped families, it helped support jobs and it helped support small business, and I would very much encourage the Allan Labor government to again look at having this initiative in place for this upcoming summer season.