Friday, 14 August 2026

 Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:30): (2709) My adjournment matter is for the new Premier, and the action that I seek is for him to meet with a range of animal welfare, environmental, wildlife and First Nations representative organisations who were not consulted in the lead-up to the Outdoor Recreation Victoria Bill 2026 and have expressed disappointment since its passage in the hope that they can be involved in any future discussions as the agency is created.

Many of us were disappointed this week when the new Premier, after weeks of this legislation bouncing around on the Legislative Assembly notice paper, with the amendments that passed in this place at 4 am before the break – we were hopeful that that meant that potentially the legislation would not come on. For those who are not familiar with how this occurred, this bill was presented as an apparent acquittal of the Silver review to merge the Game Management Authority and the Victorian Fisheries Authority. However, it did more than Silver recommended; it also gave this new agency promotional powers in a grave conflict of interest that this government actually actively tried to stamp out.

Only a number of years ago Jaala Pulford was the Minister for Agriculture, and the Game Management Authority was found to be unwilling and incapable of controlling duck shooters and stamping out illegal behaviour because of the relationship with those same people and organisations. That bill actually became worse when it was here in the upper house, despite constant requests to work with members of the crossbench to pass sensible amendments, including things like retaining existing provisions in the Game Management Authority Act 2014 such as an animal welfare representative on the board of this new organisation. Those offers were rejected, and a deal was struck with the Nationals to make this bad bill even worse.

Since that bill was amended we have seen further industry representatives slated onto the board and defined onto the board, despite being consistently told it would be illegal in the governance board. We have seen the Land Access Panel actually become more secretive than it already was. Yesterday the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations said the government’s handling of the bill betrays the commitment of Statewide Treaty by failing to consult First Peoples. As CEO Kaley Nicholson said, public land is traditional owners land, but you would not know it from this piece of legislation.

However, they are not the only ones who are bothered by this. The Victorian National Parks Association, the Wilderness Society, the Victorian Forest Alliance and Environment Victoria were also not consulted; neither were the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, End Duck and Quail Shooting Alliance, Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting, the Victorian Kangaroo Alliance, Kangaroos Alive nor any of the other volunteer organisations who will ultimately be impacted by the greater powers under this legislation. I am hopeful, given his disappointing decision, the Premier will at least meet with these organisations to explain that and to talk about a way forward.