Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Metropolitan and regional parks regulations

Petition

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (17:20): Yesterday I was proud to present e-petition 466, which draws the attention of the house to the Crown Land (Reserves) (Metropolitan and Regional Parks) Regulations 2023, which were finally published in the Government Gazette on Tuesday 27 June this year and commenced on that day. The petition was supported by 292 concerned Victorians, while the associated change.org petition has so far garnered more than 5400 signatures. I particularly commend Shourya, who did so much to promote it and who with Chris is with us in the gallery today. If I may briefly restate the essence of the petition, it is this:

As drafted –

and now enacted –

these regulations prohibit bushwalking (regulation 407) and climbing (regulation 906) in –

the parks in question –

… by default. These activities will only be permitted in designated trails and areas specified by land managers. The regulations also include severe penalties for walking or climbing in non-designated areas. This creates problems for other activities such as swimming, orienteering, kayaking, geocaching, and foraging, which often require going off-trail. Trails may be poorly marked and maintained, and the regulations may discourage hikers from calling for help if lost, for fear of penalties, which puts their safety at risk. The proposed regulations would apply to more than 40 parks –

in Victoria –

including previously unregulated areas like Macedon Regional Park and Plenty Gorge Park. These parks are particularly valuable to the outdoor community in Victoria due to their proximity to the city. Each year hundreds of new climbers and hikers are introduced to the Australian outdoors through them. Under the … regulations, access to these activities would only exist at the discretion of land managers with broad powers.

Before the election this government invited us to believe that any concern raised about these regulations was simply misinformation. They implied there is nothing to see here – that it is all just administrative action to renew expiring regulations and to tidy up and standardise rules across Victoria. Well, I am afraid that is a misleading simplification – misinformation, you might say. They may be correct that some of the bigger headlines about fishing and swimming in metropolitan parks were exaggerated, but these regulations still mark a significant change.

Firstly, as appendix A shows, many of these regional parks were not previously regulated at all. Secondly, the government contemptuously dismissed the suggestion of new fines, but as with our national parks, that is not what I am worried about. It is the reversing of the current presumption that Victorians can access and enjoy this Victorian land. They are not just restricting access to sensitive areas, they will stop access and then may choose to give us permits to enjoy specified parks. It is a trend we see in other places. Victoria has recently closed some of the best and most historic walking tracks in the Grampians, including Briggs Bluff, Dellys Dell, Mount Difficult and Mount Rosea.

Nicholas McGowan: You need a permit to go to the beach.

Bev McARTHUR: Absolutely. You cannot put your foot in the water, Mr McGowan. Wild camping and scrambling across rocks have also been banned. What can you do in this state any longer?

Nicholas McGowan: Stop breathing.

Bev McARTHUR: Stop breathing. These walks are in terrific condition, but their closure and the camping ban force tourists to the $33 million Grampians Peaks Trail at a cost of nearly $50 a night.

There is nothing free in this state, not even your park. This is the same instinct we see in the regulations this petition opposes. It feels less like genuine environmental need than a reduction of the park’s management needs and a direction of visitors towards government-controlled and money-making options. Worse still, the approach is built on a virtue-signalling oversensitivity to cultural and ecological concerns at the expense of everything else and a total disregard for individual freedom and any form of traditional historical pursuit. I have recently been campaigning against the fundamental change in Parks Victoria’s approach to national parks access, which has moved away from a default position of open at all times to all Victorians, subject to reasonable limited environmental restrictions in sensitive areas, to a situation of ‘We only allow access at our discretion by specific permission for certain purposes.’ (Time expired)