Tuesday, 8 March 2022
Bills
Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
Bills
Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
Second reading
Debate resumed on motion of Ms PULFORD:
That the bill be now read a second time.
Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (13:03): I rise to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I think it is timely that this bill has come into the Parliament just after we have all enjoyed the Winter Olympics. Certainly the Winter Olympics was a spectacular event. I congratulate everyone who participated in that, and I hope that it generates more activities for the snowfields in my region, because they certainly need the visitors to come back to them post the COVID period.
I would like to congratulate the Australian medallists at the Winter Olympics. Jakara Anthony, in the women’s moguls, won the gold medal—that is fantastic, a gold medal for Australia. We had two silver medallists: Scotty James in the men’s half-pipe and Jaclyn Narracott in the women’s skeleton event. We also had a bronze medallist, Tess Coady, in the women’s slopestyle. Seventy-five per cent of all the Australian medals were won by women. I think it is fantastic that we can acknowledge that on International Women’s Day. But also on International Women’s Day it is important to note that more of the competitors that went from Australia were women: there were 43 competitors in the Winter Olympics from Australia, 22 of which happened to be women. This is truly an area of sport where women are not only equal and well represented but doing better than the men in Australia.
The purpose of this bill is to establish Alpine Resorts Victoria (ARV) as an entity responsible for managing Victoria’s six alpine resorts. The six alpine resorts consist of Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller, Mount Stirling, Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw. Five of those resorts are in my electorate. Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller, Mount Stirling and Lake Mountain are in Northern Victoria, and we are very proud of the contribution that they make to our alpine economy. At the same time as this bill establishes Alpine Resorts Victoria the bill will also abolish the four existing resort management boards—Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Buller-Stirling and Southern—as well as the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council, and it will transfer all assets and liabilities to the secretary.
The bill will also make related amendments to the Emergency Management Act 2013, the Forests Act 1958 and the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021 to address the establishment of this new entity. In many respects the establishment of the new entity and this bill do not change the intent of the act as the bill largely mirrors legislation that already exists and just adopts Alpine Resorts Victoria and replaces references to the existing management structure. There are, however, new inclusions that this bill will bring in, and they are to the Alpine Resorts (Management) Act 1997 principles that the minister and Alpine Resorts Victoria must consider under new section 6A. One of the new inclusions is the recognition and incorporation of traditional owners into the act. Another inclusion is the focus on climate change, with the mountains to be year-round destinations. Another new inclusion is that the unique characteristic of each alpine resort must be considered, and there is also the appointment of a stakeholder consultative committee at each resort. Another new inclusion is of course the skills-based board structure for the board of Alpine Resorts Victoria.
The bill is largely about modernising the legislation and the governance model. The establishment of the single authority is aimed at improving coordination, cost efficiencies and overarching strategic leadership to the sector. It will transfer all 200-plus staff, plus a huge seasonal cohort of staff, to the new single entity. At the moment each of the resorts have many staff—as I said, around 200 plus their seasonal cohort. They will all transfer to the new entity so there will be no losses of jobs, which is a very good thing. Victoria’s alpine resorts contribute around $1.1 billion to the economy each year, attract around 1 million visitors and sustain around 10 000 jobs. So it is a really important sector of the community, particularly in my area in the north-east of the state.
The establishment of a single board is not actually a new idea. Back in 2014 the then Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Ryan Smith, commissioned a report into how to restructure the management of the Victorian alpine resorts. The second-reading speech for this bill says:
The establishment of Alpine Resorts Victoria will achieve savings through improved coordination, efficiencies of scale and reduction of duplication.
What is disappointing is while this legislation was established to find these efficiencies and reduce duplication, that information—that this needed to be done—was actually in the report that Minister Smith commissioned back in 2014. If we had won that 2014 election, those efficiencies and reduced duplications would have been long found and the state would have saved quite a bit of money. That report has been with the department for eight years. Maybe it has not been shown to the minister, maybe the department have not spoken up about it, but the way to do this has been there for over eight years. It should have been implemented earlier so that the burden on the taxpayer could have been relieved a whole lot earlier, but of course this government have taken time to get this to the Parliament. At least now those financial efficiencies and duplications will be addressed under this new bill.
Despite the fact that I think the government should go ahead with this bill and establish ARV and reduce the financial burden on the taxpayer, there are a number of concerns for stakeholders. Most of these concerns should be able to be resolved without any changes to the legislation, but the government should be listening to those stakeholders and addressing their concerns. Some of the concerns are about the lack of clarity around the resort funding model and also that the larger resorts will have to prop up the smaller resorts. There are concerns from the bigger mountains that they will be propping up the smaller mountains, but equally the smaller mountains are concerned that they will not get enough money as a result of the new structure. What they all want to know from the government is what the financial situation is likely to look like, how they are going to be assisted or how they are going to be hindered by this model of management and how the funds will be distributed.
Another concern is that, whilst the minister is anticipating savings through the department, the department could not quantify them. They stated that they are unlikely to be realised for a number of years. I have just spoken about that report that was commissioned back in 2014 by Minister Ryan Smith. A lot of those savings and things are outlined in that report. Yes, the numbers will have changed from 2014 to 2022, but if the department had looked at that report, they probably could have had those figures updated and we would all be in a much more informed situation now rather than just being told ‘We can’t quantify them, and they won’t be realised for a number of years’.
Another concern is the lack of acknowledgement of private enterprise and its critical role in investment in the operations of the alpine resorts. It is really concerning that there has been a lack of acknowledgement of private enterprise, because 85 per cent of all the assets on the mountains are owned by private owners. Private investment, private enterprise, is very much a part of all our alpine resorts, and yet the government has failed to acknowledge them and failed to consult with them on this legislation.
Another concern has been competition between mountains for the punters and resources and investment. This is something that I think could be a challenge in the future with one management board. You do have competition between mountains in attracting visitation and also in attracting investment and resources to their particular resort to make it the resort of choice. Without competition we know that things tend to decline—competition produces a better offer to the tourist and better infrastructure on the mountains.
The timing of the commencement was a concern, but we have been assured that the bill will not come into effect until after the snow season to allow a smoother transition, and we are relieved that that is going to happen. It may not even come into effect prior to caretaker mode, so perhaps there might be a government that will engage with the locals more on the implementation of this new management structure.
The board composition is also a concern—actually the board composition I think is a real concern—because it has a minimum number of board numbers of three, and three board members is hardly good governance. You really need a collective thinking, and three people can be just three mates who had some idea. It also raises questions about: what would be a quorum for a board meeting if you only had three people on the board? Are two people a quorum? Is one person a quorum? It really does not seem to be conducive with good decision-making and good board practices. It could be possible, too, that there are no locals included on the boards—no locals from any of the six mountain resort areas. It could be that there are three blokes from Melbourne or three women from Melbourne or two women and one man from Melbourne who possibly enjoy their time up at the resorts but have no investment in the local areas.
The councils are really concerned that they are going to be left out, and they should not be left out. The councils in the areas where the resorts are rely heavily on the mountains and are concerned that Alpine Resorts Victoria is not obliged to consult with them. They provide a lot of the services to the mountain and certainly the workers that work on the mountain. Of course up in my area the Alpine shire has both Falls Creek and Hotham in it, and Falls Creek relies heavily on people from Mount Beauty and Tawonga who go up there to work. It also relies heavily on the Alpine shire to provide a whole lot of other services to the resort. Bright also services Mount Hotham, and again that is in the Alpine shire, and the Alpine shire are very much involved in providing those services to people who are visiting the mountain resort at Mount Hotham. We know that during the winter it also puts tremendous pressure onto our hospital system et cetera, because the people who are visiting the resorts, if there are accidents, come down into those towns to access their medical services.
Of course that is not just confined to the Alpine shire; the Mansfield shire and the Merrijig township in particular service Mount Buller. The Mansfield township also has a number of people who work on that mountain and who provide services to Mount Buller. Lake Mountain of course is serviced largely by the Marysville community and the Murrindindi shire, so it is important that the government do actually consult with the councils, and it is important that ARV has a very close working relationship with those councils and those towns who provide all of those services to the mountain resorts.
While I have outlined a lot of the concerns there, the implementation of this legislation is going to be far more important than the policy itself. The policy is there, but the implementation, that engagement with the ARV and the local councils and the addressing of all of those other concerns, particularly the financial concerns for the mountain resorts, all need to be considered and they all need to be addressed to the satisfaction of the locals in these areas. The opposition, as I have already said, is not opposing this legislation. We are supporting the modernisation and better management of the resorts. We just believe that the government should be consulting more widely and be more inclusive of each of the individual mountains and each of the individual councils and the local communities in those areas.
When we were up in the Alpine shire about this time last year for a regional sitting, we heard from a number of people up there about the importance of the resorts to the area. We also conducted the day before the regional sitting a committee meeting of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee for our inquiry into tourism, and we were told about a number of challenges that they have faced in that part of the world, particularly on the mountains. Of course our part of the world lost the tourism season in the summer of 2019–20 because of the horrific bushfires that were nearby and even around some of the alpine resorts. We lost winter 2020 to COVID because no-one could travel to or stay at the resorts. The recovery has been very slow. Tourism has been open and closed and open and closed, and we have the reluctance of some people to travel, so that recovery is taking a lot of time.
One of the main things we heard, not only from the resorts but also from the townships in the Alpine shire, was about the shortage of staff. They cannot get enough staff to go up and work on the mountains or to work in towns like Bright and Mount Beauty. They cannot get them because there is no affordable housing locally and because we have not had international students, who supplement a lot of our hospitality workers, and it is becoming a real issue for both the mountain resorts and the townships that surround them and service them. And you have to remember that not everybody stays on a mountain. In fact some of the smaller mountains do not really have much accommodation at all, and people stay in these towns that surround them. This lack of staff is really impacting on the offer that can be made at the alpine resorts.
The Economy and Infrastructure Committee also heard from the resorts themselves about the challenges that they are having with planning and building new infrastructure. The bushfire attack level ratings have really hit hard on the resorts, and the government need to sit down with the resorts and talk to them about this. A lot of the private operators are having trouble getting insurance for their assets on the mountains because of the bushfire attack levels. This is impacting on their lease requirements because in order to have a lease on a mountain you have to have insurance. It is my hope that the government will listen to the alpine resorts and will listen to the shires that these resorts are located within. We know that local government does not have any control over the alpine resorts but, as I said, it does provide a lot of the services to those resorts and the infrastructure to get people to those resorts. My hope is that the government will do some more extensive consultation with these people to ensure that this bill is implemented appropriately, because, as I have said, the implementation of it is far more important than the policy itself.
Ms TERPSTRA (Eastern Metropolitan) (13:24): I rise to make a contribution on this bill, the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. This is a critically important bill. It will do a number of things which I will touch on shortly, but I just want to make some opening remarks in preparation for some of the detail that I will go through shortly. Many of us have been cheering the Aussies on at the Winter Olympic Games. While we may not be quite the powerhouse we are in the summer games, we do have decent winter sporting abilities, and these abilities are sparked, nurtured and honed on our very own alpine mountain resorts.
Victoria has four alpine resorts covering six mountains, each with their own unique characteristics. They are the Southern Alpine Resort, which is made up of Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw, the Mount Hotham Alpine Resort, the Falls Creek Alpine Resort, and the Mount Buller and Mount Stirling Alpine Resort.
In Victoria beginners can enjoy tobogganing and snow play, intermediates can go cross-country skiing and try some smaller slopes, while experienced skiers can zip down blue tracks and black runs. We are very fortunate to have these fantastic natural assets in our very own backyard. We can also see that our international athletes, our athletes who want to compete at international Olympic Games in the winter, can train at home as well as training abroad.
But our alpine regions also face difficulties. It is expensive establishing and maintaining tourist infrastructure, especially when most of the tourism occurs in a very short window and time of the year. And climate change is rapidly occurring, which is changing the nature of the snow as well as the threats of bushfires. I have skied at some of these places as well, and what I know is that they are quite different to overseas. For example, if you are skiing at some of these alpine resorts, you can be in a blizzard one moment and in the blazing sun the next, and you have got your T-shirt on and then you have got your jumper back on or your big ski jacket and all the rest of it. And the quality of snow is definitely impacted. I know, for example, the depth of the snowfall at times in winter is not what it used to be, so it is definitely changing, and you can see it at other alpine resorts around the world as well.
Why we need this bill is that our current individual boards are doing a great job in managing these issues but they are limited a little in their own patch. This is why the time is ripe to reform our alpine regions. The legislation in Parliament proposes to abolish the individual resort management boards and the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council (ARCC) and bring them all together under one organisation which would be known as Alpine Resorts Victoria, or ARV.
There are five key drivers for this reform: firstly, financial stability—improving the economic viability of alpine resorts for current and future generations by consolidating management, which has a whole-of-sector focus; modernising governance to improve transparency and accountability, as the current legislation is over 20 years old and limits the ability to effectively respond to long-term challenges facing the sector; thirdly, strengthening our long-term climate change mitigation and planning across the sector in a coordinated way; improving efficiency by greater coordination and removing duplication; and also in regard to the COVID-19 recovery we need to build a whole-of-sector road map out of COVID-19 to improve our resilience.
This will be done by amending the Alpine Resorts (Management) Act 1997, and in parallel with the legislative change the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, or DELWP as it is known, is working with stakeholders to develop an operating and financial model as well as a transition plan to ensure that ARV is sustainable not only now but into the future.
In addition to the existing activities that the current boards and the ARCC undertake, ARV will also need to consider the following principles. It will need to consider protection of the unique environmental, social, cultural and economic characteristics of each alpine resort; planning for and managing all alpine resorts in a coordinated manner that adapts to and responds to the impacts and risks of climate change; the ongoing impact of the use of the resorts on natural and cultural features and the ecology of the resorts; and respecting, protecting and promoting Aboriginal self-determination, cultural values, practices, heritage and knowledge in the resorts, which we know is a very important issue and something that the Andrews Labor government promotes heavily. It is really important to make sure that our First Nations people have much greater self-determination and their cultural values, practices and heritage are respected within our own environments. We will also be partnering with traditional owners in policy development, planning and decision-making in regard to the resorts and protecting and enhancing the amenity, access and use of each alpine resort for the benefit and enjoyment of current and future generations of all Victorians. We will also be promoting investment in a diverse range of tourism and recreation experiences for all seasons in each alpine resort.
So, as you can see, the key principles include economic characteristics, which include the financial and economic contribution made by the private sector. Our reforms very much acknowledge the contributions of the private sector, and we are keen to work in partnership with the private sector as well. Our principles seek to protect the ecology of the mountains and ensure climate change effects are accounted for.
Sitting suspended 1.30 pm until 2.03 pm.
Ms TERPSTRA: Finally, we acknowledge the unique connection traditional owners have with country, and we will work together to protect our alpine region. There are currently three registered Aboriginal parties: the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, the Taungurung Land & Waters Council and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation. In addition, there are other First Nations people with an interest in the Victorian High Country, and they are the Dhudhuroa Waywurru Nations Aboriginal Corporation, the Duduroa Dhargal Aboriginal Corporation, the Dalka Warra Mittung Aboriginal Corporation and the Jaithmathang Traditional Ancestral Bloodline Original Owners First Nation Aboriginal Corporation—I hope I did those names justice.
A major strength of this reform is the requirement to have a skills-based board—that is, the combined skills of all the board members must cover the following: alpine environments, activities and tourism; financial management, commercial acumen or economic development; natural resources management; cultural knowledge and authority rising from experience as a traditional owner of the land in alpine resorts; environmental conservation; and public administration or governance. We believe that this broad range of skills will allow ARV to have a strong strategic purpose and achieve the principles that I outlined earlier.
We have also engaged in extensive consultation in regard to this bill, and we are confident that we have got the balance right in regard to this legislation. It is very clear that our reform of the resorts will have a stakeholder consultative committee, which will input into ARV’s decision-making so that stakeholders will be engaged and involved in those decision-making mechanisms. The committees will be broadly representative of resort stakeholders and will likely seek nominations from traditional owner organisations, chambers of commerce, ratepayers associations and lessees and licensees of land within the alpine resorts.
So you can see there is a broad representative group of all stakeholders who are affected. ARV will review the service changes levied at each resort and will be legally required to consult with stakeholder consultative committees on each resort. Any change to the rates levied will carefully and transparently consider the financial impacts placed on on-mountain stakeholders. The minister of the day can also issue ministerial directions to ARV if they are unsatisfied with the process.
The bill does not require ARV to be self-sufficient, and ARV is able to seek funding through the regular government budget process as well. The government has historically provided financial support to the alpine regions, including most recently during the COVID pandemic, when we supported the alpine regions and businesses.
In conclusion, the Andrews Labor government have a proud record of protecting our natural treasures, and we have worked in consultation with traditional owners, local government authorities, tourism peak bodies, industry peak bodies, chambers of commerce, ratepayers associations and environmental groups in developing this legislation which we believe will allow the alpine regions to thrive not only now but into the future. I might leave my contribution there and leave some of the other points for other contributors to speak on. I commend this bill to the house.
Ms BATH (Eastern Victoria) (14:06): I am really pleased this afternoon to rise and speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, noting that The Nationals will not be opposing this piece of legislation through the house. Now, to give some context around it, this bill establishes Alpine Resorts Victoria, the ARV, as an entity responsible for managing Victoria’s six alpine resorts. I will start off with the best one—which is in my electorate—which is Mount Baw Baw and go on to fantastic Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller, Mount Stirling and Lake Mountain. On probably all of them I have come a cropper in some form or other in my less than expertise on the skis, but that is not to say that one cannot enjoy oneself whilst flowing down the slopes. At the same time, this bill abolishes the four existing resort boards—Falls, Hotham, Buller-Stirling and Southern—as well as the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council, the ARCC, and all assets and liabilities will be transferred over during the course of this enactment, when this bill becomes part of the Alpine Resorts (Management) Act 1997. The bill also makes related amendments to the Emergency Management Act 2013, the Forests Act 1958 and the Circular Economy (Waste Reduction and Recycling) Act 2021 to address the establishment of the new entity.
I love speaking about my electorate and the wonderful opportunities that it has, the wonderful attributes that it has in terms of the coastline along Gippsland, our most amazing beaches, our jewelled sea and our highlands and mountains. Indeed the whole of the mountain system—the whole of the alpine resort system—is very important to Victoria’s economy, hosting around 1 million visitors annually. That certainly has been interrupted during successive lockdowns and COVID, but it generates over $1 billion for the Victorian economy annually normally and supports up to about 10 000 jobs. That rolls off the tongue very quickly, but it is incredibly important for our Gippsland economy that these resorts are managed expertly and are managed without a flowing loss to the coffers—to taxpayers coffers—but also to our economy. Indeed Mount Baw Baw was a place where I first went in year 9. The little ski lodge there for our high school was at the bottom of a run, and one of my favourite teachers, called Mr Howard, came flowing down on his skis right up to the alpine resort door. I think I just came flowing down the hill without the skis. At the moment Mount Baw Baw still hosts some fantastic wildlife as well—there are two dingoes there, Warragul and Rowdy—and indeed my son was a ski instructor there a number of years ago. It is a fantastic place to be and play.
We also understand and know that long before we had people on cross-country skis—whether they be day visitors or staying overnight in little family-owned chalets or at the local hotels—our ski resorts were home to our traditional owners who worked the land, lived in the land, on country, and managed the land. Their bounty, their food, was off the land and also their medicine. They also of course managed the land by using firesticks and burning the land during times when they saw the indicators were it was the right time to get rid of that undergrowth. It was to establish all the herbs they needed and the plants they needed for their medicine chest but also to create the right environment to have flora and fauna for their food. It is really important that we do.
I note that the other day it was a beautiful evening and in my house I had two bogong moths. They looked like bogong moths because they were massive moths. They came all the way down to Gippsland to see us. These were a beautiful sight, knowing that they were part of the Gunnai/Kurnai diet and of those traditional owners over the hill as well. Of course in the past we did not have zones like we do now. The traditional owners had their grounds and their territories, which were somewhat fluid over the decades and centuries.
What I know is that these places need to be managed properly. I do know that during the 2019–20 fires a number of our national parks and state forests became alight because of lightning strikes. Now, to people who say that they do not exist, they have existed for millennia, lightning strikes, and unfortunately in 2019–20 we saw a number of those fires join up and travel, with devastating consequences, all the way down the coast to Mallacoota and the like. These sorts of issues and the management of our land are absolutely critical.
I have had the pleasure of popping over the hill, going from Omeo in my electorate over to Wangaratta via Falls Creek, in the past, and also last April driving back from the Council, when this house sat in Bright, over the Dargo High Plains Road, through Dargo and home. That gave me the opportunity to look around and to look at some of the, I guess, by-products of some of those massive fires. Through Falls you can see during summer basically the skeletons of the snow gums there and the consequence of the intense fires. I believe it was probably the 2002–03 fires that predominantly caused those and also, along the Dargo High Plains, some in the ash forests coming down the hill. It is very important that we look after our environment.
I would like to quote Michelle Freeman from Forestry Australia. This is a quote from what she provided to our hearing when we had the decline in ecosystems inquiry. She said:
Regardless of tenure, we need proactive management of fire risk, including strategic use of prescribed burning, maintaining forest access including strategic firebreaks, and mechanical interventions such as thinning where that is appropriate. And regardless of tenure, we need to shift our conservation strategy away from simply creating more protective areas to a broader strategy of targeted management actions designed to specifically address major threats to our forests, flora and fauna.
So when we have this ARV, part of the strategic planning around this has to be looking at the environment as well.
Another group that sincerely understands the forests of course is the mountain cattlemen. In the past we have had undergrowth cleared by the cattle throughout for many, many decades, and they still feel that that is a really important element that is now missing.
We heard through our inquiry that part of the fragility around the High Country is around the infestations of invasive weeds and feral animals and pests, and this must be looked at in context when you are looking at an alpine resorts system. This has to be addressed. One of the great strategies that the Institute of Foresters of Australia, now Forestry Australia, came up with is the importance of seed storage and sufficient seed storage. They talk about the fact that this is a really good time, an opportune time in the flowering cycle to bed down up to 40 tonnes of seeds from ash and potentially from snow gums as well. I endorse that, and the government needs to listen to this very wise, scientific group of people.
Going back to some other issues that are important to my electorate, I turn to Mount Baw Baw and its needs. First of all, in order to have a very coordinated and positive alpine resorts system you need access. Technically there are two ways to get to Mount Baw Baw. One is via Mount Baw Baw Tourist Road, which is bituminised, through Noojee and Tanjil Bren—I have stayed at Tanjil Bren, a great little hamlet—and the other one is through the fantastic town of Erica and along the South Face Road. The sealing of South Face Road has been a priority for the Baw Baw Shire Council, Tourism Gippsland and the locals forever, and indeed The Nationals and the Liberals at the last election in 2018 made a commitment to seal that road as an election promise. I again take the opportunity today to raise this as an issue for the Andrews government: commit to sealing South Face Road in the next budget in May this year. It is a really important one. It is also important for safety and security and the wellbeing of those people that work and live on Mount Baw Baw.
The other thing that needs to happen at Mount Baw Baw, looking at a great document that encompasses the whole area of the mountain rivers experience—and I know a lot of locals have put into this—and at Walhalla, Mount Baw Baw and the Erica region, is in relation to updating of the seven lifts, whether they be T-bars or pomas, to create a four-seat chairlift with a mountain bike rack. It brings me to a very important point: all of these fantastic regions now, the alpine resort regions, need to be used both in the winter context, or the white season, and then in the green season, the summer context, to enable people and encourage people and facilitate the likes of mountain bikes throughout the area on some of our great tracks in that space. These sorts of details need to be worked out with ARV. But I again encourage the government to look to these sorts of improvements that have come through very good sources. There are a multitude of great ideas with Growing Jobs in the Latrobe Valley: the Mountain Rivers Experience, a document that the Andrews government should know well. I encourage them to look at it and to adopt as many of those practices and programs as we can.
Turning to Omeo, Dinner Plain and Falls Creek, there is a great road called the Great Alpine Road, but unfortunately many people in my constituency, in East Gippsland, call it at the moment the Not-So-Great Alpine Road, because the road surface and the maintenance on that road have just been appalling. There has been a subsidence at Name Stone Point and engineering works. Yes, there is a lot of water that goes through, but the locals are consistently saying it needs to be dealt with properly so that it will not fail again and fall again and cause a big concern.
Moving to the bill in my last few moments, in the past our then Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Mr Ryan Smith, back in 2014, commissioned a report into what to do with these resorts. We have also seen the Auditor-General talk about the high risk to their financial stability. Certainly when the Libs and Nats were in government Belgravia Leisure ran the management and saw reductions in the losses on some of these mountains.
In 2015, when the Andrews government took over, the boards of Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain were merged and came back under the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. We have seen some fairly significant losses across the whole scope there in relation to providing services in the region and also in financial viability. These are some of the things that we really need to address.
There are certainly some valid concerns. One from the community and The Nationals is the lack of clarity surrounding the resort funding model. The other one relates to savings through the intended processes. They may not be quantified by the minister and are unlikely to be realised for a number of years. Competition between the larger mountains for resources and investment is also a concerning element, particularly for those smaller resorts.
One of the key things missing from the bill is an acknowledgement of private enterprise and the critical role that all of our great operators play, whether they be hotel lodges, restaurants, ski hire, supermarkets or chemists. These are very important in that private sector. If they do not exist, the mountains really cannot operate and serve the tourist industry.
On board composition, we see that some of the boards can have three members, and they can be from Melbourne. Again, we do not want to see that; we want to see locals on the boards. And the councils, which are an integral part of our regions, need to have a say. Even though it is not right on the mountain, East Gippsland council needs to be part of that conversation—in Omeo and Swifts Creek. All of those sorts of things play a really important role. With that, The Nationals do not oppose this ARV bill.
Ms MAXWELL (Northern Victoria) (14:22): I rise to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, which will abolish the existing alpine resort management boards in Victoria and establish a single entity, known as Alpine Resorts Victoria. I would like to start by acknowledging the gruelling past few years endured by the alpine resort operators and the surrounding communities that rely on alpine tourism. The devastating bushfires of the summer of 2019–20 and subsequent smoke inundation led to the evacuation of many areas and completely wrote off the summer tourist season as well. Then COVID hit and wiped out their winter. All up, around 90 per cent of tourist visitations were lost during 2020. The alpine resorts—the hundreds of small business operators on our mountains and the surrounding towns who depend heavily on ski tourism—lost somewhere in the vicinity of $900 million in economic activity. Some businesses were open for only four days in 2020 due to the pandemic restrictions. Many were ineligible for much financial support and are still suffering and trying to rebuild their businesses. There are chronic affordable housing and staffing shortages across regional Victoria, but in particular in those towns that need a real uplift in workforce during peak seasons.
I raised in Parliament last year an insurance crisis which has developed within the sector, with premiums increasing 400 per cent in some instances. A market failure is required in order for the government to intervene; however, that would necessitate the financial collapse of a significant alpine operator. The government’s response to my question was that an intervention in the insurance market would be premature before Alpine Resorts Victoria, established in this bill, has considered the long-term financial sustainability of the region. I certainly hope addressing this issue is a high priority of this new entity.
I would like to thank those in the sector who have engaged with me on this bill and also thank Minister D’Ambrosio and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for meeting with me to discuss the bill and some of the issues that were raised by the sector during my consultation. We discussed the importance of private sector investment in our alpine regions and some of the challenges when investing in ventures on public lands.
The government has conveyed a commitment to local engagement, to understanding the unique characteristics of each resort and to the need to tailor solutions that reflect their differences. I accept that funding decisions are made from one budget to the next but hope this new governance will focus on ensuring our alpine resorts are put on a sustainable footing. I hope too that our alpine resorts are supported to not only bounce back from the difficulties of the past few years but to explore the potential that strategic investment could deliver for this industry. Solid work has been done on this in the past by the existing boards and tourism bodies and there are investment opportunities identified that could double the number of visitors each year and double the contribution of alpine tourism to Victoria’s economy.
Emergency management across the resorts will continue to be very important, and Alpine Resorts Victoria will be responsible for developing a single emergency management plan that, with local components, applies across the six resorts. I have conveyed to the government concerns from the sector around asset preservation, funding models for capital investment and helping the resorts to diversify and grow their offerings across other seasons. There is usually a 17-week window for alpine businesses to make 90 per cent of their income, hence why it is so expensive to go skiing. We want the ski season to remain strong, but developing those other seasonal offerings would help sustain the resorts and stabilise employment. Much of the detail of those matters is not covered in this bill, which is about transitioning to the new entity, but they will be extremely important matters for Alpine Resorts Victoria to strategically manage.
While there is not too much that is controversial about this bill, it is certainly an important piece of legislation because it will shape the destiny of our alpine resorts, and that is extremely important to the Victorian economy and to my electorate of Northern Victoria. We look forward to seeing how this unfolds and I will continue supporting the alpine operators and proud small businesses in my electorate on any concerns they have in the process. I commend this bill to the house.
Mr GEPP (Northern Victoria) (14:27): I too rise to speak on this very important bill, the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As has been stated by previous speakers, here in Victoria we are very, very fortunate that we have four alpine resorts covering our six mountains, each with their own, as we know, unique set of characteristics. Ms Maxwell has just talked glowingly about the resorts that we share in our electorate of Northern Victoria. We know how tough they have been doing it over the past couple of years. We talked about the bushfires over the 2019–20 Christmas-New Year period and then the onset of COVID and all that was associated with the winding back of the visitor economy during that period of time for so many local businesses, small and medium—not all necessarily associated with the resorts but in the nearby towns—and the impacts that they have felt because of the impact of COVID and other things over the past couple of years.
It is important for us to understand that each of those resorts currently has its own level of management, and of course I talk about the Southern Alpine Resort, which covers Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw, the Mount Hotham Alpine Resort, the Falls Creek Alpine Resort, and the Mount Buller and Mount Stirling Alpine Resort. These boards do a fantastic job in managing their own patches, but it is now opportune, as we come through COVID and we start to plan for our recovery out of COVID, and we are well on the way to that, for us to have a look at such a significant industry as the alpine resort industry, the snow industry, and all of those that benefit from it.
That is why this reform is so timely and so important. I take on board the contributions that others have made about the process that will still be ongoing. I think Ms Bath talked about people being very interested in what would happen moving forward in terms of the financial aspects, the financial modelling, of Alpine Resorts Victoria and the transition to ensure that ARV is sustainable moving forward. That work continues, with Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) continuing to work with our stakeholders to develop that operating and financial modelling. Ms Bath also talked about a key aspect that ARV will need to consider, which is protecting the unique environment that surrounds our very important alpine region, and that is part of the ongoing work.
There are five key drivers for this reform, and I think it is important that we just briefly put those on record. Financial stability—that is, we want to improve the economic viability of the alpine resorts for current and future generations by consolidating the management across the whole sector with a whole-sector focus. We want to modernise the governance to improve transparency and accountability. We know that the current legislation is over 20 years of age, and I think there are still some people in this place who were probably here when it was first introduced. That is how long ago it was first established. I am not one of those, Ms Maxwell, but nonetheless. We also want to strengthen our long-term climate change mitigation and planning across the sector in a coordinated way. We want to improve efficiency by greater coordination, removing duplication. And, as I stated in my opening remarks, there is the recovery from COVID-19. We want to build that road map for the entire sector and work through those issues so that we have the ongoing resilience for the alpine resorts to be able to confront challenges of the future.
I am not going to use 15 minutes. I do want to just say a couple of quick things. How impressive was it at the Winter Olympics just recently, Ms Watt, that three of our four medallists came from Victoria. Seventy-five per cent of the medallists for the Australian Winter Olympics team came from here in Victoria—sadly not all from Northern Victoria, but what we do know is that each of them would have used the facilities in Northern Victoria on their journey to becoming superstars. I of course speak of Jakara Anthony, who is down Barwon Heads way, who won a gold medal, a fantastic gold medal; Scotty James, of course, who was born in East Melbourne and I think grew up in Warrandyte, who took home a silver; and Tess Coady, again, born in Melbourne, who took home a bronze medal. So to those three outstanding Victorians we say congratulations. You have done yourselves, your state and your country very, very proud. And it is important for the next generation of Jakaras, Scottys and Tesses and everybody else who enjoys the snow season—I myself have given it a bash, and I have got to say as a snow skier I am an excellent table tennis player. There is more stability in a bowl of jelly than me on skis, I have got to say. Please do not visualise that. But suffice to say that one thing you always hear when you do go to the snowfields of course is that very unmistakable sound of children’s laughter—you know, those kids having fun. They enjoy that environment so much.
We hope that the restructuring of the management of the alpine resorts under ARV will continue to grow that very important visitor economy in our alpine regions and preserve what has become such a very, very important part of our industry, particularly in Northern Victoria.
I do want to touch on one thing before I conclude, and that is in relation to some of the comments that have been made about what those opposite might have been going to do in 2014. I do not think there is a debate that goes by in this place when we are not reminded by those opposite about what they were going to do in 2014, but the fact is that they had the opportunity and they did not do anything. They did not do it. I am not sure what Mr Smith was doing in 2014 when he was reviewing the alpine resorts and the industry, but the fact is that they did not do it. You can stand in this place and say, ‘Well, we were going to if we had been elected’, but the reason you did not get elected is because, as my memory and the record states, you did not do very much during that period of time when you did have the baton in your hand.
I am glad that the bill has got support across the chamber. I am glad that we are doing what we are doing. I am pleased that DELWP and others will continue to lead consultation, particularly with our Indigenous communities in the alpine regions. They are the traditional owners of this land. It always was Aboriginal land, and it always will be. It is so important that we continue to engage those First Nations people to ensure that we are moving forward in a partnership that respects the cultural heritage of that land, respects our moves for self-management and self-determination and ensures that we are marching in lock step together. I commend the bill to the house.
Ms BURNETT-WAKE (Eastern Victoria) (14:37): I rise to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. This bill intends to establish Alpine Resorts Victoria (ARV) as the entity responsible for managing Victoria’s six alpine resorts, which include Mount Buller, Mount Stirling, Lake Mountain, Mount Baw Baw, Falls Creek and Mount Hotham. To do this the bill will abolish the current various boards of the respective mountains.
Eastern Victoria Region is home to the beautiful Mount Baw Baw. It is something that we are very proud of in the east. Mount Baw Baw is tucked away among the Great Dividing Range, and as the closest downhill ski resort to Melbourne, it is always bustling with tourists, skiers and snowboarders throughout the snow season.
This state is blessed with many beautiful alpine regions and their respective resorts. It is no secret how important these destinations are to our Victorian economy. They attract millions and contribute over $1 billion to our economy. In 2019 the Southern Alpine Resort Management Board’s annual report detailed that Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain generated more than $157 million for the visitor economy. But the value of these alpine destinations is so much more than just monetary. They are the places where children see snow for the first time; indeed they were where I saw snow for the first time. They provide a lifetime of memories for families who hit the slopes every year, they are the places our Olympians first learn to ski and snowboard, and they are of historical and cultural significance to Indigenous Australians.
These resorts are important to all of us in different ways, and that is because each mountain is vastly different. One of the first concerns I had when reading this bill was that all mountains would be lumped under the one umbrella without their individual differences and needs being considered. I am glad to see the inclusion of new section 6A, which vows to recognise the unique environmental, social, cultural and economic characteristics of each mountain, and I sincerely hope this is followed through with funding decisions. This legislation is silent on how funding will work under this new model. Mount Baw Baw is smaller in size than some of the largest destinations such as Mount Buller and Falls Creek. The stakeholders in the smaller mountains, like Mount Baw Baw, need to be sure that the big players are not going to be the focus of all the funding. Will it be the case that the bigger revenue generators are prioritised while the smaller mountains go without? These are worthy concerns, and I urge the government to consider them when implementing ARV’s funding regulations.
The second concern I have with this bill is the composition of the new board. I speak solely on Mount Baw Baw in saying it has undergone its fair share of changes to the board. It was announced in 2015 that the Lake Mountain and Mount Baw Baw boards would merge. The Southern Alpine Resort Management Board is now responsible for managing both resorts. There was initially some concern around the number of board members representing each mountain, and here we are seeing that again with this bill. This bill proposes that the board will be made up of no less than three members. It is concerning that the government think three board members is sufficient, particularly given many other government boards have as many as nine or, in the case of the Homes Victoria board, as an example, 11 board members.
The communities surrounding these alpine resorts are determined to see them thrive, and the thought of having a board member who does not live in the local area is causing concern. I firmly believe that local knowledge is the best knowledge. This bill does not include a requirement that these board members live in the local areas; it merely requires skills, qualifications and knowledge of various matters affecting alpine environments. Although this is important, board appointees could be anyone from an academic to someone who hit the slopes for a few seasons yet does not have local knowledge. This concern is somewhat mitigated by the creation of stakeholder consultative committees for each mountain, which will effectively give stakeholders a voice and the ability to express their needs and concerns. However, I am concerned that, with the Andrews Labor government, having a voice does not mean it will be listened to, as is the case with the Pakenham East property acquisitions and Flinders Pier funding issues I mentioned last sitting week. I believe these stakeholder consultative committees are absolutely key to keeping the mountains functioning in a way that best suits their individual characteristics, and I urge the government to listen to and act on the information gained through these committees. Like any change, the introduction of the ARV will require some getting used to, but if the voices from each individual resort can remain heard and acted upon, I am hopeful it will be a positive one.
Just one more thing before finishing: I want to reiterate and commend what my colleague Ms Melina Bath said earlier about South Face Road and the sealing of it. If this road is sealed, it will have great economic impacts upon the local communities, including Rawson, Erica and down through Moe. It will also offer an alternative main route into Mount Baw Baw without all the windy roads, and more buses will be able to go up the mountain and attend the ski play for the skiers, the snowboarders and the tourists. In regard to the economic impact, the positive impact in that regard, there will be able to be more ski hire and chain hire along those small towns from Moe leading up to Mount Baw Baw. Finally, I would like to thank all past and present board members for their service to the alpine resorts, and I also commend this bill to the house.
Mr ERDOGAN (Southern Metropolitan) (14:43): I am pleased to rise and advocate the passage of the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As previous members in this chamber have mentioned, the principal purpose of this bill is to facilitate the establishment of Alpine Resorts Victoria, ARV. This modern and fit-for-purpose new statutory body will be tasked to manage all six alpine resorts in our great state and provide strategic leadership to the sector as a whole. The introduction of this entity will enable an integrated and strategic sector-wide approach and better equip the resorts in terms of strategic leadership and in terms of responding to the financial and climate challenges facing the alpine area. It will address the duplication and coordination problems faced by their planning, marketing and investment functions, and obviously the entity will address stakeholder concerns surrounding the current government’s model and embed the input of traditional owners.
In my role as chair of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee I have had the opportunity to engage with stakeholders in the alpine region, in particular with representatives and the CEOs of two institutions directly affected by this bill, the Mount Hotham and Falls Creek alpine resort management boards. This was in relation to an inquiry we did into the tourism and events sectors. Obviously when we went up to Bright in northern Victoria and to the region we heard from a number of stakeholders, but we heard directly from the managements of these two institutions. Both the individuals that were invited to join were invited to join jointly, understanding that the issues they both face—that is, the Mount Hotham and Falls Creek alpine resorts—are quite similar. They had mutual challenges, and the stakeholders reflected this view, with the Mount Hotham Alpine Resort CEO highlighting at the outset that they both wished to draw attention to the numerous common problems and challenges faced by the alpine sector. This instance was testament to the importance of addressing the issues of planning, marketing, investment and climate change in a collective manner.
Obviously there was an overlay with the COVID-19 global pandemic, which had a dramatic effect on our whole tourism and events sectors. As we all know, these two resorts, but really all six resorts, are quite popular because of the unique weather and their natural beauty. They attract visitors from not only across our state but really across our nation. Instituting Alpine Resorts Victoria in place of the four alpine resort management boards and the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council is a much-needed reform that will address their shared challenges for years to come.
Before detailing the structure and functions of Alpine Resorts Victoria I would like to draw attention to a few challenges and opportunities which characterise the sector, challenges and opportunities that I can see. Tourism is critical to Victoria’s High Country, with the sector accounting for 30 per cent of the region’s employment and 27 per cent of the region’s economy. These are really high figures, higher than any other multi-LGA regional tourism region in Victoria. The snow symbolises the uniqueness and competitive edge of the alpine resorts and cements their position as a principal tourist destination. This has seen the resorts alone account for a quarter of the total visitation to the region.
Without a doubt the past two years have been really difficult for the resorts. They started 2020 off the back of bushfires, and then the COVID-19 global pandemic hit. Obviously this was followed by a period in which they had in effect closed winter seasons. Their busiest periods were greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It needs to be understood that especially in the first year, in 2020, they could only operate for four days in winter—during their peak season—so that had a dramatic financial impact on their revenue-generating ability. In 2021, although they were open for a number of additional days, it was still a dramatically affected and shortened season. Effectively when you are running a business model where your income stream must be maximised during your peak short three-month window in effect—the winter period—to be closed means that you have no significant revenue stream for those two years. As a government we took steps, and we provided support throughout, but obviously there are long-term challenges that they still face that are quite unique to the sector as a whole. Being together, being united and ending the duplication of resources will assist.
The qualities that make the alpine resorts tourist attractions are their remoteness, their weather patterns and their location, but these also impose strains on resort operability, as we have heard from some of the other speakers. Establishing and maintaining tourist infrastructure requires high fixed costs, given that most tourism occurs within a very short window, as I talked about, and other costs can be inflated due to the logistical challenges that are inherent in regional and remote areas. If we want to discuss the cost of construction in metropolitan Melbourne, the cost of constructing or doing maintenance repairs somewhere remote like the alpine resorts would be significantly higher. These challenges are paired with the sector’s significant exposure to variable income. The growing threat of climate change makes weather patterns increasingly unpredictable, and understandably the region’s tourism relies a lot on the weather.
In terms of governance and operations, alpine resort management boards function as a hybrid between a council and a tourism attraction operator. Like a council, they are tasked with offering facilities and services such as sewerage, water, public services and community infrastructure. On the other hand, their offering extends beyond the duties of a council to include those akin to a tourism attraction operator’s, like ski patrols, snow clearing and guest services, amongst others. The hybrid model also complicates the avenues for government funding.
Establishing a single, modern, fit-for-purpose statutory body for alpine resorts across Victoria will alleviate many of the governance, financial and operational difficulties faced by the alpine resort management boards due to their unique hybrid model. It will also facilitate better coordination amongst the resorts in terms of dealing with strategic planning, infrastructure limitations and climate change. Alpine Resorts Victoria, the new statutory body, will replace the four existing alpine resort management boards—namely, Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller and Mount Stirling, and Southern—and the Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council. In their place the bill will establish Alpine Resorts Victoria as a statutory body to govern all alpine resorts, with functions and powers commensurate with existing alpine resort management boards.
The bill modernises and strengthens governance arrangements, including establishing a skill-based board. This means that the new board will have combined skills that must cover alpine environments, activities and tourism, financial management, commercial acumen or economic development, natural resources management, cultural knowledge and authority arising from the experiences of traditional owners of the land, environmental conservation and public administration or governance. The bill also provides a legislative recognition of traditional connection to alpine country and places obligation on the ARV to engage and involve traditional owners in decision-making.
Recognising the unique nature of each resort is among the cornerstones of this reform, with specific emphasis that a common governing body does not mean resorts will lose their individual character. Instead the bill introduces objectives and principles to protect the distinctive characteristics of each resort by requiring the ARV to establish a local stakeholder consultative committee. These committees will be broadly representative of resort stakeholders and will seek nominations from traditional owner organisations, chambers of commerce, ratepayer associations and lessees and licensees of land within the alpine resorts. Stakeholders from the northern resorts—Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, and Mount Buller and Mount Stirling—have raised concerns that merging the resorts will lead to them subsidising the less profitable southern alpine resorts through their payment of service charges and site rental. The bill addresses these concerns by requiring the ARV to seek input from stakeholder consultative committees in determining the level of contributions in service charges. It also provides the minister with the power to issue directions to ARV, which may be used to require the entity to make public the basis for how service fees are calculated.
I have talked about why this is required, but there are in particular five key drivers for the need for this reform. Financial stability is obviously crucial. Improving the economic viability of alpine resorts for current and future generations by bringing them into one portfolio and making decisions about future management that are in the best interests of the sector is crucial. Consolidating resort management will improve the capacity to fund essential infrastructure and operations.
Two is a contemporary governance framework—a modern, fit-for-purpose legislative and governance framework that increases transparency and accountability. The current legislation is 20 years old and limits the ability to effectively respond to the long-term challenges faced by the sector.
Climate change, as we know, the ever-growing present issue—
Mr Finn interjected.
Mr ERDOGAN: This will be an opportunity to strengthen our response to climate change, Mr Finn. It will provide an opportunity to address climate change with a coordinated approach, but obviously there are other matters as well, such as functional efficiency—the opportunity to improve coordination of resort management and remove duplication.
Mr Finn interjected.
Mr ERDOGAN: Mr Finn, I understand that you have discovered climate change this morning as well. I digress from the bill.
Mr Finn interjected.
Mr ERDOGAN: I will not digress from the bill, Mr Finn, and I will focus on the COVID-19 recovery, because I guess that is one of the crucial reasons why this bill is so needed. As I stated earlier, the global pandemic had a great effect on the alpine resorts, and this bill makes sure that by consolidating the authorities and the governance framework they will be able to respond in a better way.
The alpine resorts—I do not need to tell anyone here—are a jewel in the tourism crown of our great state. They are a unique attraction for a country that is so warm and so hot. That is why they do attract tourists from not only across Victoria but across the region.
Mr Finn: Great wineries.
Mr ERDOGAN: And yes, the alpine region and surrounds in northern Victoria have great wineries—and other great tourism destinations too—all the way up to the border and the Murray. But obviously the alpine resorts are quite unique for our climate down under. They are beautiful, and I am sure that they will prosper especially in light of this new governance structure.
As a whole they do contribute over a billion dollars directly in terms of visitor spend and $2.5 billion of economic activity, and importantly they employ 10 000 people. They are a great source of employment in that region. The establishment of Alpine Resorts Victoria will be a landmark reform that will progressively strengthen the sector and make it more dynamic in responding to contemporary challenges for years to come. I commend the bill to the chamber.
Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (14:55): I will be brief. I will just comment that it is nice to walk up here without a mask on. I am not out of breath for once.
This bill is designed to combine several separate competing management boards into a single large monopoly. Just this statement alone should be enough to set alarm bells ringing. Ending duplication and waste sounds like a good idea, and if it had never been tried before we might believe it. But we have seen this in practice, and it is seldom pretty. The government supports the monopoly because it believes that central planning creates efficiency by reducing redundancy, but there are no redundancies expected from this new alpine management monopoly. They are not going to cut positions. They are going to continue to spend the same as they do now. There is no reduction in redundancy, only a reduction in competition.
This new bill will not improve management. It will make park management less responsive to the public and more expensive in the long run. The government explains that part of the reason it wants this monopoly is so it can more easily implement its policy agenda across the area. The government is dictating from the top and is restructuring the state to facilitate that top-down control.
What our alpine resorts need is not centralisation and increased regulation. What they need is more autonomy and more deregulation of what can be done there. Small resorts are going to be squeezed out by the bigger revenue generators. I am sure the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and Parks Victoria would love the chance to close down more resorts and kick more people out of our national parks. Competition and free markets would invigorate our alpine resorts. This bill does the opposite of that, and inevitably over time it will make things worse. This is almost certainly not the solution you are looking for. We do not propose to force a division, but on principle the Liberal Democrats will not support this bill.
Motion agreed to.
Read second time.
Third reading
That the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to.
Read third time.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Pursuant to standing order 14.27, the bill will be returned to the Assembly with a message informing them that the Council have agreed to the bill without amendment.