NEWS 3 May 2018 | Page last updated: 10/3/2023
The Victorian Environment Minister has issued new terms of reference for the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC) to do a desktop assessment of the values of the Victorian marine environment.
The assessment aims to inform the development of a statewide marine and coastal strategy and the development of the proposed Marine Spatial Planning framework.
The assessment is welcome and likely useful, but it falls well short of what was recommended by the recent VEAC State-wide Assessment of Public Land. The government response to that assessment disappointingly explicitly ruled out consideration of new marine national parks or protected areas as: “It is current government policy that no new marine national parks will be created”.
The anti-marine protected area stance by the Andrews Government is poorly informed policy.
Find about more Victoria’s great marine national parks here.
