Labor’s subsidies speak louder than their strategies
Last week… Jaala Pulford threw more of our money at destroying Victoria’s biodiversity…at the same time as Lisa Neville is drafting a strategy to protect it.
- $6.2M for yet more pointless and indiscriminate aerial baiting of wildlife (A Robley’s report 2011– showed it was ineffective against wild dogs).
http://www.jaalapulford.com.au/media-releases/fox-bounty-extended-wild-dog-control-measures-doubled/ - $5.3M to assist the hunting lobby. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/vic-budget-2016-17-invasive-species-funding/7339388
- $161M to upgrade the Western Highway by cutting down thousands of very grand old Redgums – essential habitat in an area almost denuded of large trees. http://www.jaalapulford.com.au/media-releases/safer-and-more-reliable-journeys-on-the-western-highway-as-another-21-kilometres-open/ Plus …
- $100,000 to a Benalla sawmill’s expansion plans http://www.jaclynsymes.com.au/media-releases/labor-backs-benalla-saw-mill-expansion/
Add to that, the $30M for the government’s burning plans. These also are acknowledged as ineffective and extremely destructive to biodiversity and our ecosystems each year. http://www.eastgippsland.net.au/news/govt-report-burning-for-fire-safety-is-a-flop
Plus the $7M for machinery contractors to knock down every habitat tree they regard as ‘hazardous’ along any track or road that DELWP chooses, including through National Parks.
But not a cent to update the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas which is 20 years out of date.
Not a cent to carry out surveys to even get baseline information on WHAT environmental values and wildlife exist WHERE in Victoria!
And we’re currently being asked to comment on a biodiversity plan for the future! http://haveyoursay.delwp.vic.gov.au/biodiversity-plan
Jaala Pulford and Lisa Neville seem to be lapdogs to the ‘shoot it if it moves, chop it down if it doesn’t’ club. These decisions are not based on science or evidence but political expedience and dirty deals. The environment and wildlife are always the losers that pay for this type of tacky policy making. Or is it really a convenient way to finish off the last of the endangered quoll populations and other struggling wildlife with broadscale extermination efforts?
There is no eco-logical explanation to decisions being made. We have to make a louder noise than the anti-dingo lobby, the shooters’ groups, the logging heavyweights and the back-woods burning boys. Email these (ir)responsible ministers and the Premier … lisa.neville@nullparliament.vic.gov.au jaala.pulford@nullparliament.vic.gov.au daniel.andrews@nullparliament.vic.gov.au