Wednesday, 19 November 2025

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (12:06): I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

The government supports these amendments. They are amendments put forward by the Greens political party in the Council. The amendments will remove a relatively small area, 2865 hectares, from the area which would have been made available for deer hunting by stalking, specifically in Mount Buangor National Park. They are sensible amendments that we are happy to support.

On hunting, the bill provides over 130,000 hectares of public land access to recreational deer hunting by stalking through not only access to existing areas where it is permitted but also new areas. These once-in-a-generation changes, opening up the Snowy River and Errinundra national parks to seasonal deer hunting by stalking as well as revoking the game sanctuary status of the Mount Cole State Forest, are important changes for recreational deer hunting by stalking. That means you do not have animals, you just have the hunter. It is also important for the environment because deer are very problematic for the natural environment in many contexts, particularly in national parks.

Let the record reflect that the opposition voted against increasing public land access. No matter what they say, it is clear that they voted against providing more access to deer hunters in Victoria.

Members interjecting.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: It is absolutely fundamentally true. But even more than that, they voted again against creating new national parks in this state.

I could not be prouder, as Minister for Environment in Victoria, that this Parliament is about to pass a bill that creates three new national parks, Mount Buangor National Park, Pyrenees National Park and Wombat-Lerderderg National Park, and conservation parks: Cobaw Conservation Park, Hepburn Conservation Park and Mirboo North Conservation Park. It is creating the Wandong Regional Park but also adding land to the existing Bendigo Regional Park, adding land to Liwik Barring Landscape Conservation Area, adding land to the Brisbane Ranges National Park, adding land to Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park and adding land to Yallock-Bulluk Marine and Coastal Park.

I think what is important to note also is, just so the community understands the level of investment that this government has put into parks in general but national parks specifically, that Parks Victoria has appointed over 80 new park rangers since July. Parks Victoria is a modern, fit-for-purpose organisation with a great new board, an excellent CEO and a new executive team. We are very, very proud to announce that the organisation has put in over 80 new park rangers to maintain the public land estate as people expect – that is, it has got to be at a level that gives credence and support to the national parks legislation. That is what people expect, and that is what this government will deliver.

Simultaneously, though, this government will deliver more public land access for Victorians – not just for deer hunting, as I have outlined, but for other recreational land users. We are not buying into the binary debate of the Liberal–National opposition that either divides people by whether they are park users or conservationists or divides people by any other human attribute. We have seen that multiple times in the upper house. I thank our upper house colleagues and the Council generally for their support of this bill. I support the amendments, clearly, and I commend the amendments and the bill to the house.

 Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (12:11): The Liberals and Nationals do not support the amendments that have been brought forward through, I guess, what has been a horsetrading exercise in the other place. To get the things that they want through, the Greens have done a deal with the government. To me, part of it demonises deer hunters, and that is very, very concerning. When this bill came into the Assembly here, we had quite a bit to say about it. There were some good parts, some not good parts and some stuff we could live with.

One of the things that sits behind this is the petition we had with over 40,000 signatures. It was pretty significant having a petition of that size saying no to new national parks. This was the petition made through a member from Eastern Victoria in the other place.

Steve Dimopoulos: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I have enormous admiration for the member on her feet, but she has got the facts wrong. She has to be factual. That petition was for a different process. These national parks were committed to in 2021.

Members interjecting.

Steve Dimopoulos: Absolutely – completely different.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): I will rule on the point of order. I am not entirely familiar with all the dimensions of this. I assume that all members are factual.

Cindy McLEISH: The minister and I clearly have a different way of viewing this bill, because we very recently had people signing the petitions saying no to the new national parks. They were put up by Ms Bath in the other place, the member for Narracan here and also Ms Lovell in the other place. I think we ended up with about 80,000 people all up saying no to new national parks.

This bill essentially is adding land to the national parks. One of the things that was a huge concern –and remains a huge concern to me, despite what the minister is saying – is the state of our existing parks. The staff of Parks Victoria – I feel so sorry for them, with the work that they have to do and the expectations of the community. They are constantly under the pump, because there is so much to do now without trying to add the additional national park land into this.

The deal that has seen these amendments come down to us is about the removal of deer hunting in a particular area. I have deer hunting in my electorate, and I know how valuable it is to small towns and communities. I would have expected that the area in question here, Mount Buangor National Park, was going to be opened in places for deer hunting. That was what the provisions were, and that was something that we were quite supportive of. Now they have been removed. Representing the High Country in my electorate, I know the fabulous contribution that deer hunters and the community make locally, whether you are in the small towns of Jamieson, Kevington or Woods Point. Woods Point does well out of having a very active deer hunting community.

In Mansfield itself we have specific shops set up, and people help to go out and guide people in the parks to stalk deer. It makes a big difference, and I will tell you the size of the difference it can actually make. Maybe 12 or 18 months ago Mandy Curley from Mansfield Hunting & Fishing, off her own bat, organised kind of like a trade show expo thing in the main street of Mansfield.

There were some 50-odd trade stalls and 8000 or more people turned up, just between 10 and 4, I think it was, and the town of Mansfield was just blown away by how many people came to the town. Shops sold out of just about everything. The number of individual transactions that was made in Mansfield, by Mansfield Hunting & Fishing, was really extraordinary. I hear from accommodation providers all the time about how much the deer hunting economy brings locally, and this is particularly important.

In the area where Mount Buangor is located, between Ararat and Beaufort, there are small country towns, and I would think that opening that area up to deer hunting would bring that fraternity there to hunt in different areas where they may not normally hunt. Sometimes it is locals doing the hunting, and other times it is people coming from the city; it is people coming from areas like Mordialloc, Greenvale and Cranbourne that come up to our areas to do the hunting. It is a recreational activity. It is very legal. Part of what I understand the Greens to believe – and I am sure the member for Melbourne will articulate her arguments shortly – is that it is not safe, because you have a mixture of camping as well as hunting, guns, kids and people. Well, let me tell you, that exists now. That exists in the towns of Jamieson, Kevington, Woods Point and Mansfield in my electorate. These activities are able to operate quite easily side by side, and I think that in this case they could do the same. This is one of the key reasons why we oppose it. We know two things: we know that this is a really important economic driver in small country towns in the High Country and areas where they are open to hunting. We also know it is a wonderful activity, and that pretty well in the main, the hunters are responsible. They know what to do, they know how to do it, they have their licences, they have their hounds that hunt with them and they behave well. Occasionally you will have a rogue hunter, but they are usually not in a park; they will be on a main highway or on the edges of towns or something like that doing things that they should not be. I think this demonises, to a point, the hunters.

I will note that today in fact we have Hunters for the Hungry up on the terrace. This is where these organisations want to show the good stuff that they do, the game that you can eat and the food that they get when they stalk a deer and when they get a deer. It is used for food for themselves and for their families, and there is also pet meat in that as well. It is very disappointing that on one hand, the government are saying, ‘Yes, we support extending deer hunting in national parks in some areas.’ We have seen that over in East Gippsland in designated national parks. Snowy River and Errinundra were areas that were being expanded. That is a good thing for those areas, and I imagine that that will bring quite a great economic boon as well, having that. I am sure the member for Gippsland East would be able to elaborate more on that.

I see this as a lost opportunity in the areas around Ararat and Beaufort. If you look on the websites of those towns, they have lots of small accommodation hotels, and that is often where hunters stay. Sometimes they will stay in campgrounds. It is important that we have good campgrounds that are open, and it is also important for our motels, because it is tough doing business in regional Victoria. It is tough doing year-round business. We have different seasons where people get out for different activities, and it is great if we can have something across the year. These small towns, I have no doubt, would have been boosted by the changes that are being made to the bill here, the Parks and Public Land Legislation Amendment (Central West and Other Matters) Bill 2025. As I said, we have some 80,000 people saying no to new national parks, but a lot of those people want to be able to continue doing the activities that they have done in existing state forests, and that will include a lot of the deer hunters.

I have been quite careful here to keep my comments related to the amendments, because these amendments go to the heart of deer hunting generally in my area but to the heart of the area around Ararat and Beaufort, and a member of Parliament, I would expect, knowing that this would do great things in their electorate, would get up and oppose the government and would speak against these changes, because it is only going to be positive for those small country towns.

There are many, many sporting shooters in Victoria. As I said, it is a legal activity, and you need to have the proper firearms licences to do this. I am not sure how aware people are in this chamber of the difficulty of getting a firearms licence and maintaining that every couple of years. It requires quite a bit, and the area of Victoria Police that do that spend time making sure that the people who are issued with those licences, whether they are a sporting shooter or a clay target shooter or a deer hunter, are the right people to have the guns and that they are not handed out willy-nilly. And to think that these have been removed – the information that I have is that it was because it was a safety issue. It sounds like a little bit of a philosophical issue, and the government it seems are having a bob each way by trying to say, ‘It’s okay here, but it’s perhaps not okay there.’

Deer hunting is legal, and there are many, many responsible hunters. I urge the government members and in fact members of the crossbench and even the Greens to go up and engage with the hunters from Hunters for the Hungry tomorrow and to hear what they do and how they do it, because I think they will be enlightened, particularly about how seriously they take it. They know that to have this activity maintained they have to be law-abiding and they have to do the right things, and they want to do the right things, which is why we have Field & Game Australia and why we have the sporting shooters associations there who represent and lobby all political parties. This was one of the bits in the bill that we did like. It is very disappointing that the government have decided to pull this away.

I know there are other members who are keen to speak on this, so I will end my comments but reinforce my opposition to the amendments.

 Luba GRIGOROVITCH (Kororoit) (12:23): From the outset I want to say a huge thankyou to the minister, Minister Dimopoulos, and his team not only for all of the work that he has done getting this through the upper house but also for the bill in full. This bill is one that is headed in the right direction, and the amendments that have been accepted are also good.

To the member for Eildon, who just spoke before me: it is another situation of ‘Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story’. The reality is what was said was completely and absolutely wrong. What Ms Bath’s petition did in the upper house was get ahead of the government’s response to the work of the Great Outdoors Taskforce and to the work of the eminent panel for community engagement. These parks are completely different areas in Victoria to what the member for Eildon was saying, so clearly she was confused. Member for Eildon, it might be worth catching up with the minister –

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I would like to fact-check the member for Kororoit. She is misleading the house.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): Much as in your contribution, it is not for the Chair to adjudicate on that. I assume all members are being factual.

Luba GRIGOROVITCH: As I was saying, the facts that the member for Eildon spouted off before were completely wrong. The parks that she was speaking about are in a different part of Victoria. I would guide the member for Eildon to actually arrange a meeting with Minister Dimopoulos and maybe sit down to get the facts right.

But anyway, circling back to the amendments, I would like to say that we completely support the amendments. The bill creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and it is one that we are really proud of. Hunting via stalking is important not only for people to get outdoors but also for the environment. And I am quite surprised: I know that the end of the contribution from the previous member was supportive of deer hunting, but it seems that too often the opposition is very much opposed to deer hunting but try to disguise it another way. That is something that I personally look down on, because I am very supportive of our hunters.

I am very pleased as well to let all those in the gallery know that I had the absolutely great pleasure just recently to draw the ballot of the Blond Bay Hog Deer Advisory Group. People from not only Victoria but all over Australia entered this ballot to be part of it because they were so keen to be randomly drawn to have the opportunity to be able to participate in this upcoming hog deer hunting that was happening. That was out at the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia in Springvale, and it was really a highlight. It was a great event to be part of, and it was good to see just how many passionate hunters got involved in this ballot draw. It was a real eye-opener for me not only to speak to everyone on the night but to be able to have the opportunity to draw that ballot, something I look forward to attending at future events. I am proud that this government has supported parks so greatly. I am very proud of the amendments that have come forward and look forward to working even more closely with the minister on not only parks but more things with outdoor recreation, because it is important that we utilise our outdoor spaces.

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (12:26): I rise to speak briefly on the amended Parks and Public Land Legislation Amendment (Central West and Other Matters) Bill 2025. We very much support the creation of new national parks. These are three new national parks that have been a long time promised. It has been several years since they were promised, and we are glad to see them finally, finally be declared. The amendments that we have before us again are amendments that were brought forward by the Greens and supported in the Parliament, and we are proud to see them become law. The Greens are proud to have introduced these amendments, which will remove recreational deer hunting from Mount Buangor national park. We did this because I think the government did not realise when they made this a national park – or they made a mistake – that there are school camps in the national park and there are several really important outdoor recreational businesses that would have been very much threatened should deer hunters have been allowed into that national park to shoot deer in close proximity to children on school camp, and that was a terrible outcome for everybody. It was only the Greens who actually picked this up and spoke to all of those stakeholders and brought an amendment to prevent that from happening. This amendment will secure the safety and sustainability of school camps, bush users and more than 30 local families that rely on that area for employment.

We really want to thank the Minister for Environment and his office for their engagement. We appreciate that the government has come to the table with the Greens and agreed to these commonsense changes to keep the kids and community safe from deer hunters and to protect our beautiful natural areas. We credit the amendment to the excellent advocacy from several groups, which I want to shout out to, including Outdoors Victoria, the Victorian National Parks Association, school camps Australia and the Pyrenees Shire Council. These groups rightly pointed out that deer shooting for fun is simply incompatible with existing outdoor recreation sites, and we thank these groups for advocating for the safety of local people, businesses, teachers and kids at Mount Buangor.

It does kind of raise the question: why are we allowing deer hunting in other national parks and other areas where other people are going in and trying to simply enjoy nature? We heard from the minister about how important it is for our economy, for our health and for our environment to have people go in and appreciate nature and enjoy nature and get out and enjoy our beautiful natural areas. I think it is quite difficult to do that while you have people stalking and hunting deer when you are walking along a path. And I think some of the answers that were given in the other place about how they were going to warn people that there would be deer hunting, where you might want to be wanting to go camping or bushwalking or doing other activities in the national parks – they say there will be updates on the website or there might be some signs put up. I think that is going to be pretty cold comfort to the people who are having bullets go past them as they are trying to enjoy nature. I think that those two uses are simply incompatible. I spoke more about that in my original speech, so I will not go too much into it now.

There were some other amendments that the Greens attempted to pass in the other place, particularly around logging and the continued logging and also around deer hunting. We are disappointed that they were not adopted, but we are very glad that these ones were adopted.

This bill is, as I mentioned, the result of a promise made many, many years ago, before this minister was in the portfolio, to create new national parks. We were worried that they would never, ever come. We are glad that they did come, but unfortunately the bill came with this gift to the shooting and hunting lobby tacked on, which is something that is pretty classic of the Labor government. They say, ‘We’ll do something for the environment, but we’ll tack on this gift for the hunters and shooters,’ and that gift was 140,000 hectares of Victorian land for hunters and shooters to be able to go and hunt deer. These amendments remove 2800 hectares of forest that are heavily used by schoolkids, teachers, outdoor recreation workers, hikers and campers. So it is a good thing, but hunters will get more than twice the amount of hunting zones just down the road.

These amendments are really the bare minimum. They keep schoolkids safe, which I think all Victorians should support. I would be surprised if the Liberals and Nationals do not want to support keeping kids safe from bullets and guns while they are on their school camps, but let us see what happens. It would be pretty disappointing if the Liberals and Nationals took that position, and I think schoolkids and their families would be pretty disappointed by that as well. The Greens want to reiterate that feral deer must be treated as a pest to be eradicated, not as protected wildlife or game to be shot for fun and then for those numbers to be kept up. That is what is happening now. I made some more fulsome comments about that in my original speech. Experts back in 2021, four years ago, called for Victoria to finally join every other mainland state and classify deer as pests. We know they are pests. I am sure that almost every member in this place has seen deer on our roads, deer in our school playgrounds and deer in people’s backyards – we have even had deer just down the road from Parliament – and they should be classified as pests, where we have a proper eradication program. Yet Labor has rejected that. They have rejected the recommendation. They have chosen to keep them as protected wildlife, which removes an obligation on landowners and the government to manage and eradicate deer, and I think that that is environmental vandalism. It is bad for a lot of reasons.

Some of the other amendments that we moved but that were not successful include those around closing loopholes to Victoria’s ban on native forest logging. The Greens appreciate that Victoria has finally ended the destructive practice of commercial logging and has transitioned workers and industries to more sustainable plantation logging, but the job is not entirely finished, and we still see several loopholes in this policy. We see significant logging on private land. We see precious native forests being destroyed in other states, like Tasmania. People in this industry took transition packages, moved to Tasmania and destroyed old growth forests, and it comes back over here on the Spirit of Tasmania to be milled at sawmills here. That is creating significant environmental damage, and that is something that needs to be fixed.

It is more than a very live risk that with the Forests (Wood Pulp Agreement) Act 1996, which still exists on our statute books, all forest produce permits, if we keep them in our laws in Victoria, could be used by a future government – a future Liberal–National government most likely – to bring back commercial native forest logging. We do not want to see that. I do not think anyone in Victoria wants to see that. Not only is it environmental vandalism, but it is actually also economic vandalism, given that the industry loses so much money every year. We understand, from our discussions with the minister and his office, that some of those logging loopholes can only be fixed following an ongoing court case, once that is resolved. But we urge Labor to finish this reform in this term of Parliament so that the door is not left open to a future Liberal–National government to bring back native forest logging in Victoria, which would be a disaster. I commend these amendments, which are important Greens amendments, to the house.

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (12:34): I am very pleased to speak on the Parks and Public Land Legislation Amendment (Central West and Other Matters) Bill 2025. I am really thrilled that the bill creates three new national parks, two new conservation parks and seven new or expanded regional parks, which is really important, obviously, for our threatened species. Many in the chamber perhaps can relate to some of their fondest memories of childhood in Victoria being walking through national parks with family – just simply walking through, whether it was just after a light rain or whether it was for bird spotting – and smelling the beautiful aromas and very simply just absorbing our beautiful natural habitat.

Seeing these important reforms come through is not only inspiring some terrific childhood memories but also current and future memories. It is very important for current and future generations of Victorians to be able to experience some of the greatest pleasures that nature can offer.

I will just make a qualification. I note that the member for Eildon was relating to matters regarding what Ms Bath brought forward pertaining to the Great Outdoors Taskforce and the work of the eminent panel for community engagement. Not to be patronising or to disrespect the advocacy on those issues, but it is not to be conflated with the purposes of this bill and the origination of this bill going back to 2021. Not to patronise that advocacy, but conflating it with the purposes of this bill simply is not a logical way forward, but I am not disrespecting the advocacy of those who will speak on behalf of their regions and are attempting to assert particular elements.

The other beautiful thing, I should say, is the new central west parks will add to the attractions for visitors to the region and nearby historic towns. Who does not love our beautiful mineral springs and wineries? But there still will be public access, because pertaining to that issue that I said from the outset, there is no – of course I am expressing an opinion, but one of the most beautiful delights that we can enjoy is walking with nature and helping to foster that deep nexus with our beautiful natural environment from a young age. There will be a whole gamut of activities that can be enjoyed in the national parks, including walking, picnicking, nature observation, fishing, camping, car touring, four-wheel driving, trail bike riding, mountain biking, horseriding, dog walking – on leads – and seasonal deer hunting by stalking.

Obviously, we are here principally to talk about the amendments. This amendment provides a commonsense approach to deer hunting on public land in this state and in the area of Mount Buangor, and I hope I pronounced that correctly. I should say this amendment refers to about 2800 hectares; it is a commonsense amendment and I am glad that it is being incorporated into this bill. I think that we will find that it is a really important step forward. I have to reflect principally people in my electorate, but I do not think I am speaking out of turn to say that this should benefit all Victorians and of course visitors to our state, whether from interstate or whether from overseas, to be able to see what is unique and distinct and beautiful about our beautiful country and our beautiful state of Victoria, noting that it has so much to offer. And it is also good when we are talking about wellbeing. I mean, what better way to be able to just get that peace and serenity and to let go of the stresses and strains that people experience in everyday life? This is a nice organic way, if you like, of being able to enjoy our natural environment better, to be able to support our wonderful regions. Certainly there are many locals there that will benefit from the patronage of Victorians, interstate and otherwise, who wish to visit those beautiful towns and areas of Victoria, all the while fostering our biodiversity into the future, because we know that the trees are the lungs of the planet. So it is very important that we do respect nature and we do respect these very precious parts of our beautiful state.

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (12:39): I am pleased to rise to say a few words on this, not the least because the government curtailed debate on this legislation when the bill went through on the second reading in this place, and I did not get a chance to speak, including about the fact that some forests around Mirboo North are being made into conservation zones under this legislation. This debate is, though, specifically about the amendment that has been moved in the other place, and previous speakers have spoken to it.

I just want to clear up a few things for the house. Both the minister at the table at the time and the member for Kororoit claimed that the then record petition against national parks, tabled by Ms Bath in the other place, was not about this at all.

I can inform you that, in part, the petition actually says:

In accepting the formation of three new Central West national parks, the Victorian Government has shown disregard for the interests of bush user groups who participate in traditional recreational activities, which not only contribute to rural and regional jobs but also have a positive impact on people’s well-being …

et cetera, et cetera, and:

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Council to call on the Government to not create any new nationals parks and keep state forests open to public access and traditional activities.

It was very clear that it was both about new national parks generally and about the Central West. So both the Minister for Environment and the member for Kororoit were completely wrong in their assertion about that very strong response by the Victorian community against new national parks and, by extension, against this legislation.

There are a couple of other things I want to pick up in the debate so far. The minister talked about how very proud the government is to be implementing this legislation – so proud that it has taken it four years to do it since it committed to. That is the reality of this situation. The Victorian Environmental Assessment Council report that recommended these national parks was handed down in 2021, and here are the government, who are so proud to be doing it that they have waited four years.

I note that government members and the member for Melbourne and others love to talk about how we are protecting these national parks. You do not protect a piece of land by putting a legislative line around it. That is not protection. What is it protecting it from? It certainly does not protect it from bushfire, from weeds, from invasive pests, from all of those things. Mining can be allowed in certain national parks, as can prospecting and mining. Indeed the member in the other place unsuccessfully moved an amendment to allow the minister, as the minister can in every other national park, to allow prospecting and mining in the central west parks, and the government chose not to support that. But surprise, surprise, it chose to support the Greens.

I think every hunter in the state should be aware that while the government will be out there spouting off that they have moved legislation to expand the area that deer hunters can stalk into the Snowy River and Errinundra national parks, at the point where it had a little bit of pressure from the Greens in the other place to remove that hunting opportunity in Mount Buangor National Park – there it went. They agreed to it. They bend over backwards to do what the Greens want them to, and the Sporting Shooters Association and every other hunter in the nation and the Australian Deer Association all should be aware that this government will sell them out as soon as they get a chance.

We certainly support hunting in this place. That is why the Nationals and the Liberals are opposed to this legislation and to these amendments as well, because we do think that people should have full and fair access to all our public land. That is not to say we do not like national parks. We do. We think it is very important that we have an adequate, comprehensive and representative reserve system in this country and make sure that we are protecting those important environmental assets. But while the minister is saying that they are protecting these areas and they have added new staff, the facts say very much the opposite. There has been an increase in area of national parks of about 20 per cent in the last 10 years and a decrease in funding to Parks Victoria of about 35 per cent. You do not protect land by locking it up and leaving it, and that is the simple fact. On that point, I think we should all remember the Premier’s statement at the Herald Sun bush summit in Bendigo in her hometown last year, where she said:

… I want to be very clear as Premier and as a proud country Victorian I won’t be putting a padlock on our public forests. It’s not who I am. It’s not what I believe in.

Well, these amendments and this legislation put a padlock on for certain classes of Victorians, particularly hunters and many others, when it comes to these national parks.

James Newbury interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: It is a broken promise, member for Brighton. So the Liberals and Nationals are opposed to this. This is just another Labor–Greens deal. As I said, hunters should be aware of it and should be very cautious about accepting commitments and promises from the Labor government. We will not be supporting it, and we will be opposing this legislation.

Assembly divided on motion: