2016-02-10
Ms DUNN (Eastern Metropolitan) — My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Local Government. The action I request is that she commits to protecting the remaining public open space in Venus Bay in the Shire of South Gippsland. The local community in Venus Bay has been campaigning for the past 30 years for the protection of the 1 per cent of remaining public open space. These open spaces are critical to the livability of our suburbs and towns, are highly valued by the community and also provide important physical and mental health benefits. Across Victoria these spaces are being swallowed up by residential consolidation.
In Venus Bay the South Gippsland shire now plans to sell at least 7 of these important public spaces and quite possibly as many as 10 to 20. Apart from the benefits that the Venus Bay open space provides to the community, it is also the last refuge for many endangered birds and mammals as well as 14 varieties of native grasses that comprise highly endangered grassland communities of which there is only 1 per cent left in Victoria. These small reserves also hold important Indigenous cultural heritage for the Gunaikurnai people, including skeletal remains, artefacts and middens.
In areas of Victoria such as Venus Bay where there is less than 2 to 3 per cent of remaining public open space, I ask the Minister for Local Government whether she will commit to protecting these areas, and in particular will she commit to protecting the last remaining public open spaces under threat of being sold by the South Gippsland shire in Venus Bay?