Western Metropolitan Region
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (12:55): (665) My constituency question is to the Minister for Environment in the other place. My constituent volunteers for a conservation group in the west and is passionate about native temperate grasslands of Victoria’s volcanic plains, which once covered a third of the state. Announced in 2010, the Melbourne Strategic Assessment promised to protect 15,000 hectares of grassland through the western grassland reserve. More than a decade later only 18 per cent of that land has been acquired. My constituent noted that multiple reports, including the parliamentary inquiry into ecosystem decline, a 2022 Victorian Auditor-General’s Office report and a 2023 state of the environment report, all underscore that we must move quicker to protect our critically endangered grasslands and the threatened species that inhabit them. So my constituent asks: what is the government doing to accelerate the timely acquisition of western grassland reserve land, including sourcing alternate funding sources?