One of the worst moves for the integrity of national parks in decades
The Great Ocean Road delivers spectacular access to some iconic land and sea scapes, including the world-famous Twelve Apostles Marine National Park and the Great Otway National Park with its lush forests and beautiful beaches.
National parks have been successfully protecting 80 per cent of the Great Ocean Road for decades.
But in one of the worst moves for the integrity of national parks in decades, the Victorian Government plans to hand over control of some of our most iconic national parks along the Great Ocean Road to a new tourism-driven authority.
The primary motive for managing our finest remaining natural areas should not be income generation. It should be conservation.
We’ve just been notified this proposed bill will be debated, and likely passed, in Victorian Parliament’s Upper House this week.
We need to tell our representatives right now not to support this backwards step in nature conservation.
We’ve just been notified this proposed bill will be debated, and likely passed, in Victorian Parliament’s Upper House this week.
We need to tell our representatives right now not to support this backwards step in nature conservation.
Introducing new overriding Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority will strip protections and weaken the integrity of the parks estate.
It will put Parks Victoria in a subordinate role, handing crucial guardianship responsibilities under the National Parks Act 1975 to a tourism-focused authority.
It sets a terrible precedent for environmental management across the state.
One of the biggest issues is that new authority won’t be government-funded. It will have to generate income from carparks, campgrounds and other fees – a move that will put pressure on our already vulnerable parks.
Our national parks and their manager Parks Victoria need improved government funding, not a takeover.
There are significant issues with the management of increasing tourism along the road, and the assortment of campgrounds, parking areas, toilet blocks and other small areas of public land. It makes sense for a new agency to simplify and coordinate the road’s problematic facilities.
But it is a shocking territorial leap to snatch management of the national parks along the coastline as well.
The new law would fundamentally change the aim of park management. Instead of primarily protecting our native plants and animals and the landscape it would see managing the national parks as a ‘compromise’ between environmental management and the tourism economy.
Great care needs to be taken to ensure that Victoria’s prized natural areas are protected and to respect the purpose and value of our national parks.
