2016-09-13
Ms DUNN (Eastern Metropolitan) — My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. I draw the minister’s attention to yet another incident of VicForests commencing logging in a coupe containing protected species. Despite ongoing assurances from the minister that VicForests are competent to survey for protected species, the evidence remains that this is not the case. VicForests commenced logging a Victorian rainforest site of significance at Mount Buck in East Gippsland that contains rare and protected slender tree ferns, cyathea cunninghamii, without providing appropriate management and protection zones. Surely, Minister, at some point you must acknowledge the need to intervene. What will the minister do to ensure that VicForests is compliant in its obligations in relation to protected species?
Ms PULFORD (Minister for Agriculture) — I thank Ms Dunn for her question and her interest in the work of those employed by VicForests. It is very important work that they do indeed. I will take Ms Dunn’s question on notice and provide her with a written response. But I take this opportunity to share with the house and Ms Dunn, given her considerable interest in the standing and quality of the staff at VicForests, a very significant occasion for VicForests in the last couple of weeks. Fifty staff members from VicForests — some past and many current staff members — who bravely battled the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires were awarded national emergency medals at a special commemorative ceremony. The high skill level and courage of these people was noted in the work that they did on that incredibly dark day in Victoria’s history. I thought it was appropriate to take this opportunity to say that. I know Ms Dunn likes to make inquiries in this place from time to time about the character of the staff at VicForests. I thought it was wonderful to see such character so well recognised. Supplementary question
Supplementary Question
Ms DUNN (Eastern Metropolitan) — My supplementary question is: spotting fleet-of-foot small arboreal marsupial species in the middle of the night may present certain challenges in surveying, but surely stationary ferns that are evident in broad daylight and stand in excess of 2 metres tall should not be hard to identify. In accepting the minister’s assurance of VicForests’s competence in surveying, I can only assume that VicForests is deliberately ignoring evidence of the presence of threatened species. Will the minister act to bring VicForests to heel to comply with the legislative and regulatory framework within which it operates?
Ms PULFORD (Minister for Agriculture) — I thank Ms Dunn for her supplementary question. VicForests