Wednesday, 28 May 2025

National parks

Petition

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (17:33): I have just a few words on a very good petition that my colleague Ms Lovell presented to the Parliament this week which relates to the request that the Legislative Council call on the government to not create Wombat–Lerderderg National Park or Mount Buangor National Park and to keep those state forests open for public access and enjoyment. Indeed the petition puts some very good parameters and a compelling case as to why it is a very good idea to keep them open and not lock them up.

If we total up recent petitions – the one that I presented to Parliament with 40,000 signatures of Victorian saying no to any new national parks, the one with roughly 29,000 from my colleague in the lower house the member for Narracan and Ms Lovell’s – we end up with 80,000 people saying no to new national parks. To be very clear on this to the house, this does not mean no to active management. It does not mean no to enjoyment, conservation or the rest. It means: let us keep the status quo.

Back when I first came in here there were rallies on the streets out the front of Parliament on this, and there were people saying that we need to keep those state forests open. There are 80,000 signatures, and it is about 80,000 hectares that is about to be locked up. I understand that this government is saying things like, ‘It’s a historical commitment.’ Well, it was not. It was a commitment by a former minister, Minister D’Ambrosio, and I am sure there are people out there in Victoria who have varying thoughts on Minister D’Ambrosio. But we have a new minister, Minister Dimopoulos, and he can make a choice. It is not written in stone. He can make that choice to not go ahead with this legislation.

Some of the most wonderful things can happen in state parks that cannot happen in national parks. We love our national parks, but they exclude certain activities. They certainly exclude people from free and dispersed camping. They exclude people from taking their dog in and camping with their family. They exclude people from having a little campfire and looking after it, communing with nature in that way. They certainly exclude the prospectors and miners overwhelmingly from going into a national park and doing what they do – and prospectors and miners do this very well in this area of Mount Wombat and Lerderderg. Indeed I have been contacted by prospectors and miners who are very concerned about this government’s new – you will never guess – fee grab, new proposition, concerned that they are going to increase the individual Victorian miners right licence by, get this, 234 per cent.

This government is a government of tax rises, tax increases and new taxes, as we have seen, and this one is up 234 per cent. Now, it is an individual miner’s licence, and in my mind it is a bit like a fishing licence. You can have it for a short period of time – someone can go out there and get their licence online and have a great day out with their family and see, have a taste test, whether they actually like to do this fossicking and prospecting – or you can have it for quite some time, for that year. If you are going to put an impost, an increase, on that licence of 234 per cent, you are going to get people who make those choices not to get a licence and therefore to potentially, sadly, participate illegally. We do not want that. We want these sorts of outdoor activities, the Liberals and Nationals, to remain outdoor activities and for families to get together.

What we also know of course is that the recreational activities like prospecting and fossicking in these state parks are a wonderful opportunity for regional growth and regional prosperity. The local small towns have people come in, they buy their petrol, they buy their local groceries, they go out into the bush, they experience nature and they leave it – and I know this is a very strong commitment of the Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria – in a better place than when they found it. They often take out glass, or sometimes they will find some little treasures, and certainly they will take the rubbish out with them. I commend them, and I call on the government to – yes, they are doing an investigation – investigate and then say no to this 234 per cent increase in licence fees.