Protect Victorian nature

The tall forests, woodlands, grassland plains, arid mallee scrub, majestic rivers, calm wetlands, spectacular coastline and thousands of native plants, animals and fungi that call Victoria home are incredible and unique.

Victoria is the most-cleared state in Australia. Let's work together to protect our surviving wildlife and habitats.

The tall forests, woodlands, grassland plains, arid mallee scrub, majestic rivers, calm wetlands, spectacular coastline and thousands of native plants, animals and fungi that call Victoria home are incredible and unique.

Victoria is the most-cleared state in Australia. Let's work together to protect our surviving wildlife and habitats.

Premier: why is nature still waiting?

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Dear Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos, Premier Jacinta Allan, Member for Macedon Mary-Anne Thomas, Member for Ripon Martha Haylett, Member for Bendigo West Maree Edwards and Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes

Re: Premier: why is nature still waiting?

I was deeply disappointed when your government failed to deliver on repeated promises to legislate new nation parks in Victoria’s central last year. It’s a new year and I call on you to urgently deliver on your commitments.

It has been 43 long months since the Victorian Government committed to creating new parks including Wombat-Lerderderg, Mt Buangor and Pyrenees national parks as well as a network of smaller reserves and regional parks including Wellsford Regional Park, near Bendigo.

Victoria is still the most cleared state in Australia.

Our web of life is still taking a hammering. The same 2000+ threatened plants, animals and fungi struggling to survive, let alone thrive, still need protection. Nature and the people who love it are still waiting for you to make true on your commitment.

Now we are being told that you’re not even considering looking at potential new protection in national parks in the rest of the state. The CEO of Parks Victoria has been sacked and the agency is under review and suffering significant budget cuts.

Just a few months ago in April 2024 you announced that a ‘…Taskforce will also explore which areas need to be protected to safeguard threatened species, areas that qualify for protection as National Parks and opportunities for Traditional Owner management’.

Now the Taskforce says it ‘…will not be making any recommendation for large-scale changes to land tenure, including not creating any new national parks’. This is a clear backflip and flies in the face of community sentiment, science and global commitments and approaches to nature protection.

We also understand the government has received a report for ‘Eminent Person Panel on Community Engagement’ about the future protection of the Central Highlands/Yarra Ranges in October 2024. No announcement has been made and no report has been released.

The central west parks are home to over 370 threatened plants and animals, such as Powerful Owls, Brush-tailed Phascogales and Greater Gliders.

The parks protect our water supply, including seven significant headwaters of important rivers including the Moorabool, Werribee and Lerderderg.

National parks are vital for both nature and for people. And they are overwhelmingly popular. More than 80% of Victorians support them. More than three times as many people visit national parks as state forests.

The Victorian parks estate contributes at least $2.1 billion annually to the Victorian economy through tourism and supports over 20,000 jobs.

I call on you to:
• Deliver your promise. Put legislating the new central west parks at the top of the agenda for parliament in 2025.
• Create the Great Forest National Park or similar in the Central Highlands/Yarra Ranges.
• Properly protect East Gippsland & north-east forests, including new additions to parks and reserves as well as better management of state forest.
• Properly fund and resource parks managers, allocating at least 1 per cent of state budget to nature protection.

I fully support the creation of new national parks in Victoria.

Please, deliver on your promise and create these new national parks as soon as possible.

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