Wednesday, 15 May 2024

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:57): I rise to record the Libertarian Party’s opposition to the proposal to limit outdoor recreation in an area of central Victoria that is larger than the ACT. I refer to the proposed great forest national park, but there is absolutely nothing great about a plan that locks people out of public land. Horseriders, four-wheel drivers, dog walkers, trail bike riders, mountain bikers, prospectors and recreational hunters would all be banned from doing what they have done for generations. Our national parks would then apply their famous lock-and-leave management policy, which inevitably leads to infestations of weeds and feral animals that are controlled only by bushfire. Perhaps this explains why Australia is a world leader in both the number of national parks and the extinction of mammals.

The proposed national park would lock Victorians into a future where kids who might otherwise be camping in their favourite spot will stay home and browse YouTube videos about camping while their parents read news stories about childhood obesity. The great forest national park is an anti-human proposal of the kind that is now a pattern in this state, like the ban on the timber industry and the lockout of rock climbers in the Grampians.

Libertarians believe in humanity. We believe public land should be for the public, and we condemn this environmental lockout they like to call the great forest national park.