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Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Brumby Government has again been exposed as the neighbour from hell because of its appalling mismanagement of public land, Shadow Minister for Environment and Climate Change Mary Wooldridge said today.
In a damning report tabled in Parliament today, the Auditor-General criticised the Brumby Government for the declining poor health of Victoria’s biodiversity, much of which is due to the proliferation of weeds and pest animals such as rabbits, foxes, feral cats and wild dogs.
Ms Wooldridge said the Control of Invasive Plants and Animals in Victoria’s Parks report was scathing of the Brumby Government’s management of public land and its failure to allocate appropriate resources.
“Almost half of the management plans for our national and state parks have not been updated under this decade-long Labor Government,” Ms Wooldridge said.
“The Auditor-General found that the data on invasive species is ‘fragmented, inadequate and increasingly out of date’ and recurrent funding to manage pests and weeds has declined.
“Despite the enormous costs to private landholders and the state’s productivity, John Brumby has failed to take responsibility for the management of public land.
“The total cost of invasive species on private Victorian land alone is estimated to be more than $1 billion a year, while the cost to native biodiversity is ‘incalculable’.
“The Brumby Government is the largest and clearly the most negligent landholder in Victoria.
“What the government fails to do in our parks has a huge effect on critical areas of native conservation and also on our farmers who are sick of spending time and money to control weeds and pests on their land because of John Brumby’s negligence,” Ms Wooldridge said.
The Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition has announced policies on controlling wild dogs and foxes in Victoria as well as funding for Landcare co-ordinators to help manage projects including those used to control weeds and pest animals on public and private land.
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