Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (17:13): My adjournment debate is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change and concerns the management of the Winton Wetlands reserve near Benalla, formerly Lake Mokoan. The area was a popular duck-hunting destination for many years before the lake’s decommissioning in 2004, activity which contributed millions of dollars of tourism into the local economy. Yet in spite of this involvement and the track record of Field and Game Australia in conserving and rehabilitating wetlands in our state, shooting organisations have not been invited to contribute in any way to the restoration project embarked upon since 2010. Despite 10 years and $20 million of taxpayer funding, the wetlands are not thriving. Indeed the much-heralded largest wetland restoration project in the Southern Hemisphere has now been memorably described as a barren, man-made disaster. It is an appalling situation given the opportunity which exists. Surely on a 24 000-acre public reserve an area could be made available for managed hunting and crucially for the restoration of wetland habitats which it would require. Visitor numbers could be hugely higher, and public land in the area could be made available to a new generation of Victorians to practise, in a properly regulated and managed way, duck hunting.

The action I seek from the minister is a commitment to investigate amendment to the Crown Land (Reserves) (Winton Wetlands Reserve) Regulations 2010. As I know well from the work done at Lake Connewarre in my electorate, hunting organisations do not just talk about environmentalism, they put their time and money where their mouth is. Modification of the regulations and a pilot scheme to reintroduce hunting would permit them to put time and effort into environmental works, weed and pest control, constructing and monitoring nest boxes, tree planting, track and access maintenance, education and so much more. The site’s convenient location just off the Hume Highway and its popular history of hunting both suggest there is a real chance to convert the Winton Wetlands from a barren drain on the public resources to a thriving popular ecological and economic asset. I urge the minister to work with Field and Game Australia, who have made this proposal, and the local management committee to bring the site back to life as rapidly as is possible.