Northern Victoria Region
Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (13:00): (1005) My constituency question is for the Minister for Environment. Recently I met with hardworking constituents from Biolinks Alliance, who are doing incredible work to build the capacity of conservation groups within my electorate. Connecting Country is one of those organisations, and with the help of Biolinks they initiated the large old tree project, which engages landowners with appropriate habitats to help protect the threatened brush-tailed phascogale throughout the Mount Alexander shire. This incredible project is now under threat due to funding. We know how critical empowered communities are in addressing the species extinction crisis in Victoria, and yet the entire community conservation sector is collapsing under the watch of this government. My constituents want to know if the government will match the philanthropic funding raised by Biolinks and the community organisations it works with to constructively support and undertake species conservation in Northern Victoria.