Hansard debates

Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (16:00:24) — I rise this afternoon to speak on the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Amendment Bill 2018. In summary, the bill amends the act to ensure that it is stronger and can more effectively protect Victoria's biodiversity, which the government says is in a range of different things and in the face of different things, including emerging and existing threats such as climate change. The protection of plants and animals, our biodiversity, is critically important to this state for obvious reasons, as many speakers have referred to in their contributions.

From a Morwell electorate or Gippsland perspective we are blessed to have many, many different areas within our region which are great attractions, as the Minister for Tourism and Major Events just outlined in a broader sense. The member for Gippsland South is here. Wilsons Promontory is a great attraction and a beautiful part of the world. Tarra-Bulga National Park and Morwell National Park within my own electorate are wonderful destinations. The flora and fauna, the animals, and the scenery in those areas are just fantastic. It is absolutely imperative that we do provide protections for the continuation of that for future generations to see. Not only are there are number of threats maybe of a human nature but also bushfires and so forth that can add to that burden that many of those great destinations experience from time to time.

But on the bill itself, it does do a number of things, and one of the things I did wish to refer to was the role of the scientific advisory committee in making the critical habitat determinations. The committee can make a recommendation to the secretary to make a critical habitat determination. The secretary must then consult with the scientific advisory committee and give reasons to that committee for a decision to propose or not propose the making of a critical habitat determination following that recommendation. Subsequent to that a management plan is put in place, and I guess one of the concerns that I wish to raise — and this was probably relayed by the member for Gippsland East — is how this will interact with private landowners who basically manage two-thirds of our state. Concerns have been articulated by the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) in relation to this.

The main point I wish to make in my contribution is the fact that we need to have really good balance between the protection of our plant species and having biodiversity and not having an impact on industries and people within our regional communities. The member for Melbourne in her contribution seemed to chastise the member for Thomastown when she mentioned the word 'balance', but I think it absolutely has to be a balance. I think the member for Melbourne needs to get out into regional communities more to actually understand what the real impacts are if you over-legislate and over-regulate.

For example, within the Morwell electorate in the Gippsland region the last thing I want to do is see more people losing their jobs and us having to import resources from interstate or internationally. Last year in my electorate 160 direct jobs were lost from Carter Holt Harvey timber mill within our community along with many, many more indirect jobs. Hancock Victorian Plantations, which is obviously out in the areas planting trees and helping with harvesting activities, again have been impacted by job losses.

You can have both, but the point the member for Gippsland East made, which I think is a good one, was the fact that if we push these industries out, we still require resources. So is it a good thing to import products from international jurisdictions that do not have the same forestry standards that we have here in Victoria and Australia? From the Greens' point of view, from a planet perspective we are actually worse off because we are not factoring in travel miles and we are not factoring in forestry standards and regulations that apply in international jurisdictions. From a local perspective it is lose, lose, lose, and from a planet perspective it is lose as well. Unfortunately that is what they fail to see when they talk about that.

The member for Gippsland East also talked about recreational pursuits in some of our great destinations. The Minister for Tourism and Major Events again articulated in his contribution the importance of visitation in many of our regional communities, where we do have great destinations, whether it be Wilson's Prom, Morwell National Park, Tarra-Bulga National Park or Phillip Island. They are critically important, and we should never forget that.

Again, without sounding repetitive, I hope this legislation does not impact on industries and businesses. One of the forgotten industries for Victoria which is very prominent within my electorate is the resource sector or the quarry sector. At the moment we have the likes of Maryvale Sand & Trading Supplies, Latrobe Valley Sands, Latrobe Valley Blue Metal and Matthews Quarries — four major businesses within the Latrobe Valley that have been attempting to progress some development. All of them want to grow and expand, but they are having much difficulty with bureaucracy, green and red tape, and departments and agencies breaching their own statutory time frames. These businesses cannot even get to first base. What I do not want to see this legislation do is put an additional burden on those businesses. Not only will it not be good for my local community and those businesses that could grow and expand and create jobs, but also from a government perspective, in providing material to this state the government bangs on about major projects and infrastructure projects, and that is great, but you have got to source material from somewhere.

If we are prohibiting businesses from growing and expanding and providing important material to these projects, then we are defeating the purpose. What we will end up doing is importing material from interstate or elsewhere, which is adding costs, not helping the environment and not helping anybody in this situation. So the government has to be very careful. I hope ministers are talking to each other when it comes to implementing this legislation. I hope they are not putting additional burden on industries and businesses that are important to not only local communities but also to this state.

Again I refer back to the member for Melbourne's comment about roads, about VicRoads being so bad and about flora and fauna. She needs to get out into the regions. I can give you a prime example of the Princes Highway duplication from Traralgon to Sale —

Mr D. O'Brien — Why are you talking about my electorate?

Mr NORTHE — No, Flynn is in mine, member for Gippsland South, there is a Flynn farmer in the Morwell electorate. With the Traralgon to Sale highway duplication, for heaven's sake, there is a road reserve there, and they could not build the road in the road reserve of course, because they were not able to do that. So what is the outcome? The outcome is the poor farmer has to give up his land for a road to be built on it because of the rules and regulations that are in place.

You can sense why the VFF have concerns about this legislation and about any prospect of additional regulation on farmers and landowners, and I completely understand that. The fact is that you have got roadworks in some regional areas, such as this example that I have raised, where there has to be not only a shifting of major services such as powerlines and sewerage but also the acquisition of farmers land. We might have to cop that in terms of biodiversity and all of that, but again, if this legislation is making the situation worse for farmers, then that is not right. I might mention that in the situation at that Flynn farm, when they moved the sewerage services, they had a massive spill on this farmer's land, so there are complications with that as well.

In closing, whilst I have some concerns with the bill, I just hope it does not add additional burden to quarries, to farmers and to industries and businesses in regional Victoria.