Thursday, 15 May 2025

Northern Victoria Region

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (12:42): My constituency question is for the Minister for Environment. In Plenty Gorge Park, an essential natural sanctuary that exists within parts of Northern Victoria, vital habitat for some of our most iconic and vulnerable wildlife is facing serious and immediate threat. A group of reckless individuals on bikes are disrupting the environment directly within an area of a large flock of gang-gang cockatoos, who use the region for feeding, breeding and raising young. This habitat is absolutely critical for our endangered gang-gang cockatoos, whose populations are still recovering from the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires. Despite numerous pleas by community members to local councils and police, little to no effective action has been taken. What will the minister do to help stop environmental vandalism and protect the wildlife that exists within Plenty Gorge Park?