Western Victoria Region
Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:56): (93) My constituency question is for the Minister for Environment and concerns the legal basis for the exclusion of the public from the Grampians National Park in my electorate. I have raised before my concern that instead of assumed access for all, with specific exclusions, we now have blanket exclusion with specified access. Clearly in some circumstances short-term reasons for total exclusion may exist, including bushfire, but the National Parks Amendment (Safety) Regulations 2020, approved in December last year, justified the closure of parks in order to manage risks to public safety related to COVID-19. Given even Victoria’s lamentably prolonged state of emergency ended in October last year my question is: does this secondary legislation made without positive parliamentary approval and yet with vast implications for my constituents, and indeed all Victorians, remain in force today, and with what justification now the pandemic is over?