PARK WATCH Article March 2025 |

Executive Director, Matt Ruchel, says the Victorian Government’s approach to parks and public land management is veering into dangerous territory

Slashing funding, gutting expertise, and dodging long-standing commitments, all while spinning a narrative that defies reality. This is the new normal for parks in Victoria.

On the last sitting day of parliament for 2024, Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos announced a wide-ranging review of Parks Victoria (PV). He also announced the departure of PV CEO Matthew Jackson ‘… by mutual agreement’. It’s obvious Mr Jackson was pressured to leave.

Minister Dimopoulos stated, ‘It’s clear that Parks Victoria’s current operations need to be improved to meet community expectations’.

This comes on the back of severe budget cuts to PV. It’s hard to see how major funding cuts, combined with an out-of-the-blue review meets community expectations.

Ironically, on the same day as this attack on PV, the annual report of the National Parks Act was tabled. It showed overall satisfaction index across all parks of 85.9 per cent, and satisfaction in park management of 80.3 per cent (see Fig. 1). This is a statistically significant increase from 78.8 per cent in 2021–22.

PV need to improve in some areas, particularly having the resources, skills and knowledge to look after our unique habitats and wildlife to a high standard. But dramatic budget cuts and the exodus of experienced rangers will only achieve the opposite.

Likewise, there’s plenty of evidence that state forests are poorly managed, given they have traditionally been left in hands of destructive logging. VNPA is concerned that the Minister’s actions appear more like creating a political cover and we remain deeply worried this is a Trojan horse for dismantling or delaying hard won nature protections.

Victorians love their parks!

It’s clear the cloud of misinformation around national parks and their role in protection has influenced government agenda. The government likes to say things like ‘Our focus is to bring more families to the bush and more jobs to the regions while still protecting our environment’ or ‘We want as many Victorians as possible to enjoy the great outdoors’, but the figures suggest otherwise.

The broader Victorian community supports (more than 80 per cent) the idea of national parks (see Park Watch, Dec 2024). They also enjoy parks for peace and quiet or passive activities, and they vote with their feet.

In 2022-23, there were over 54 million visits to state and national parks (and probably more than double that if other assets like metropolitan parks or jetties managed by PV are included). By contrast, the 16 million visits annually to state forests equate to at least three times less, for roughly the same size area (see Fig. 2).

Many people visiting state forests find the behaviours there alarming: loud shooting parties, random 4WD hooning, illegal off-track dirt biking and chainsaws. It’s a free for all.

Policy frolic

The Victorian Government invested $9 million in making camping free in national parks – basically replacing the amount that PV would have received in camping fees. While this sweetener looked good on the surface, the lack of fees lead to a huge increase in ghost bookings (people not turning up to booked sites due to no financial incentive to cancel). This led to many campers missing out, whilst many popular campsites remained unused.

The globally recognised idea of national parks and protected areas is about conserving places for the future survival of wildlife and habitats, which we all depend on and appreciate. They’re about managing recreational uses consistent with nature protection, not excluding them. They’re part of our way of life and identity and certainly, a reason many international and national visitors come to Australia and Victoria.

Most Australian’s love hanging out in the bush through passive activities like bushwalking, picnics, birdwatching and camping in peace and quiet. The debate around their protection has drifted into culture war territory, which is deflecting attention from their protection. National parks have been around for 150 years, they’re hardly a new idea!

Parks and protected areas are at the core of efforts to protect the natural world and one of the few mechanisms that protect whole habitats and landscapes.

It seems the government is on a policy frolic, rejecting global and national commitments and agreements, and even their own environmental policies. All the while trying to tell the community it’s for their own good.

It begs the question, why is nature being deprioritised for the benefit of the few and noisy?

Fantasy games

The government has dropped its commitments for looking at new protected areas in the east of the state. It’s so-called Great Outdoors Taskforce (GOT) seems to have arrived at a foregone conclusion. It appears to be a largely pointless process – as much theatrical fantasy as the other GOT, the Game of Thrones.

GOT will not be making any recommendations for large-scale changes to land tenure, such as national parks. All this really does is leave the door open for the return of native forest logging, if we get a change of government. Not only re-introducing a damaging industry, but wasting close to $1.5 billion in industry transition funding.

The Allan Government had also long promised to legislate new central west parks by the end of 2024, but this legislation failed to materialise. The government reaffirmed in The Age on 7 February 2025 that legislation to create the two national parks would be introduced to parliament this year.

But with repeated delays it’s no wonder many voters are losing trust in major parties and government as a whole.

VNPA will, of course, continue to push hard for this promise from 2021 of new central west parks to be delivered. We’ll also defend our parks system and inspire people to stand up for the places they love. There’s no doubt public land and park management in Victoria and Australia need more resources.

Current funding for PV is less than half a per cent of the state budget. It needs to be a minimum of at least one per cent per year. Cuts and sackings are not the answer.

At a national level the environment is also losing out. Much needed reforms to national environmental laws have been dropped. As a percentage of federal government spend, the environment received about 0.1 per cent in 2024. As with Victoria, national nature spending needs to be at least one per cent.

A recent report produced by the Biodiversity Council calculated the total value of Australia’s direct and indirect subsidies in 2023–24, with a medium to high adverse impact on biodiversity was $26.3 billion. That’s over 50 times larger than the average of $475 million per annum that the Australian Federal Government has invested in biodiversity over the last decade.

Dramatic cuts to PV budget

Parks Victoria doesn’t just manage national parks and conservation areas, it manages regional parks, metropolitan parks like Albert Park and piers and jetties in Western Port and Port Phillip, as well as many beaches and wetlands. It’s stretched very thin.

PV has three major sources of funding which vary from year to year:

Government funding (approx. 50–60 per cent of total). This funding stream is made up of core national/state park and reserve funding from government (between 30–45 per cent of total government funding) and capital or project funding which makes up the rest of government contributions.

The Parks and Reserve Trust (approx. 20–30 per cent of total). This is collected via water bills in parts of Melbourne’s metropolitan area but can be spent largely only in metropolitan and adjacent areas. The Parks and Reserve Trust also funds other things like the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance.

Other income (approx. 15–20 per cent of total). Some is from interest, but it is mostly fees from accommodation, camping, leases, licences, project firefighting refunds and other miscellaneous sources. It’s expected that capital works projects may vary from time to time, such as responding to major weather events or the need to renew expensive infrastructure like jetties.

Parks Victoria has had dramatic cuts on all fronts. Core funding has been reduced by approximately $6 million, and capital funding by approximately $40 million. Allocations from the Park and Reserve Trust have been cut by approximately $18 million, and fees from project firefighting reduced by approximately $9 million (see Fig. 3).

Like everybody else, government departments are not immune from the cost of living crisis and other costs inevitably rise. This includes substantial increases in insurance costs and other operational expenses. So, the cuts are doubly problematic.

VNPA will continue to stick up for the places we all love and push for the care they deserve – because once they’re lost, they’re gone forever.