Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Wilsons Promontory National Park

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:20): (357) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Environment in the other place. For those who have been there, Wilsons Promontory National Park is the most beautiful jewel in the south, with granite outcrops, beautiful varied forest systems and shorelines of squeaky, perfect sand. Many people love to visit Wilsons Promontory, and it is under the auspices of Parks Victoria.

Parks Victoria for many decades had a traditional ballot system in order to book your summer holidays or your time down there in this wonderful jewel in the south. The problem is not the people of Parks Victoria – they are still down there doing their most amazing work, communicating with the public and serving the public in situ – it is the back-end part, it is some consultant. The website was going to have the most amazing update so that you could book online. This system has failed monumentally. Basically on the first day that it was opened it crashed. I recall when I was teaching in the state system we had a brand new system that cost multimillions of dollars and it crashed on the first day and they threw it out. Unfortunately not only have people who want to book their special time at the Prom not been able to, but there is also some concern about the private details of campers who registered or tried to register with the system being released in some way.

What I would like the minister to do is, first of all, fix the system for our Victorian community and the interstate community who want to come and visit our wonderful promontory and provide a time line for when it will be fixed. Fix the problem and communicate with Victorians when it is going to be fixed. Also, I would like the Andrews government, through the Minister for Environment, to detail what, if any, breaches have occurred to those people who tried to register and have security concerns and what security measures are going to be put in place when the system is finally fixed to protect people’s personal data and to provide a guarantee that it will not happen again.

If I have not said it enough, our wonderful Wilsons Prom is the most beautiful place. When I was training for Kokoda I ran – ran is an overstatement – I walked up and down Mount Bishop. The view from that place alone is awe inspiring, and I encourage people to go. At the moment it is catch as catch can – take a day visit – but hopefully the system will be up and running. I call on the minister to do this as a priority.