PARK WATCH Article March 2026 |

Matt Ruchel, Executive Director, says the government has lost its way on nature

The Allan Government is showing a lack of cohesive vision for nature in our beautiful state. Labor has been giving with one hand and taking with the other, souring any perception of progress and running the risk of trashing its well-earned legacy as a pro-nature party.

The Andrews Government phased out native forest logging, but the Allan Government has yet to close all the loopholes. The government did pass new legislation to create the central west national parks, after a four year delay and much public pressure.

On the flip side, they abandoned plans to create ‘…the largest environmental protection plan in our state’s history’ and ‘the largest expansion to our forest reserve system in our state’s history’ including new national parks in the east of the state.

Over the last year, the Allan Government has arbitrarily opened up the Snowy River and Errinundra national parks to deer hunting and made dramatic cuts to fisheries officers, Parks Victoria and Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action staff. They have now turned their attention to gutting long-standing institutions that safeguard nature.

Abolishing VEAC and VMCC

At the time of writing, the Entities Legislation Amendment (Consolidation and Other Matters) Bill 2025 had passed the Legislative Assembly and is about to be debated by the Legislative Council. Shockingly, this legislation will largely abolish the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC) and the Victorian Marine and Coastal Council (VMCC).

Independent expert councils like VEAC and VMCC are the quiet champions of Victoria’s nature protection system. They’ve shaped millions of hectares of national parks, protected our coasts from development pressures, and made sure threatened wildlife have a voice. Now, they’re being eroded. 

VEAC has been instrumental in creating our national parks and protected areas for more than 50 years. If abolished, its functions will be handed to the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability: reduced to a single public servant, with no independent council of experts.

Some of the requirements for  community consultation will be transferred over, but key provisions like the mandatory duty for departments to act in accordance with government  accepted recommendations will be removed. This leaves hundreds of areas not yet properly protected in limbo.

VMCC, which oversaw protection of our incredible marine life and coastline, will be cut entirely. At a time when our coasts face growing pressures from climate change, development, and illegal fishing, we’re losing the independent voice that holds government accountable.

Its work is far from over. A new Marine and Coastal Strategy is due in 2027, and VMCC has a key role in advising and monitoring.

The government’s own Protecting Victoria’s Environment – Biodiversity 2037 plan highlights a gap of almost 2.1 million hectares in the Victorian reserve system against international and national benchmarks. This would have been a focus of future VEAC investigations and assessments.

These low-cost institutions, made up of independent experts, are the backbone of our nature protection system. They harness knowledge from leading experts in their fields. They’re a drop in the ocean of the state budget, yet they’re being axed in the name of ‘cost saving’. At the same time, key biodiversity staff are also being cut, creating a recipe for poorly informed decisions for which nature will pay the price.

Without VEAC and its predecessors (the Land Conservation Council (LCC) and the Environment Conservation Council), Victoria would look very different. The Grampians (Gariwerd), Alpine and Barmah national parks, our marine national parks and sanctuaries, and the Mallee parks (to name just a few) would not exist in the way they do today – carefully designed and informed by science and community.

The government of the day has always had the final say. But now they seem to prefer a process where they can make deals, or decisions based on political whim. In this recipe nature loses out.

The situation is made worse by a lack of political contest from major parties. Labor has been erratic in protecting nature. The National Party’s policy is to return native forest logging. They also had a long-standing policy to abolish VEAC. The Liberal Party has largely been silent on nature for the last decade, with the agenda often dominated by National Party interests.   

The LCC (1971–1997) was a creation of the Hamer Liberal Government, championed by Minister Bill Borthwick. VEAC in its current form was created by the Bracks Labor Government. VMCC was created in 2018 under the Andrews Labor Government.

Sadly, Victoria’s major parties are in a race to the bottom, dismantling their own reform initiatives.

What else is on the chopping block?

The government has supported a recommendation in the recent Silver Review of the public service to ‘Confirm the need for 90 advisory committees, with the assumption that 90 per cent will cease and other mechanisms could be utilised if a need for external advice exists.’

So, other key nature safeguarding and advisory bodies are on the chopping block for the next tranche of cuts. This is likely to be done in separate legislation. It’s unclear what review process is being undertaken and how the decision will be ‘confirmed.’ Cutting these institutions should simply be ruled out. Here’s what’s being considered in future cuts:

There are also plans to merge the Victorian Fisheries Authority and Game Management Authority into a single regulator. This could weaken protections for marine wildlife and protected areas.

The legislation currently being debated also includes changes to enforcement for Parks Victoria staff, with a greater role being given to the Office of the Conservation Regulator.

Enforcement is critically important, both for the safety of the people who make 50 million visits to national parks each year, and for the protection of habitats and wildlife in the parks. Without the right numbers of rangers on the front line, parks and protected areas are just lines on maps.

Together, we’re working hard to stick up for nature. Now’s the time to escalate our efforts, to protect nature from the people who’re supposed to be protecting it.