Great Forest National Park support could decide Victorian election ~ The proposed Great Forest National Park has the potential to save the endangered Leadbeaters possum and secure victory for the political party that supports it. BOTH MAJOR PARTIES have a last chance to snare victory in Saturdays Victorian election by promising to deliver the proposed Great Forest National Park. Polls show that support for the park on Melbournes eastern outskirts could determine marginal seats, including that of deputy opposition leader, James Merlino, and the seat that encompasses much of the proposed park, Eildon. The Great Forest National Park plan will protect the forests of the Central Highlands, restore regional economies and meet the growing demand for nature-based tourism experiences. The park is also vital for saving Victorias animal emblem, the Leadbeaters possum, from extinction. Numbering only 1,500 in the wild, today there are fewer Leadbeaters possums than orangutangs, which number around 60,000. The decisions of the next Victorian government will determine whether we save the Leadbeaters possum from extinction, or whether it becomes another sad footnote in history like the Tasmanian tiger. About a year ago, the leading experts on the Leadbeaters possum recommended its status be elevated from endangered to critically endangered. This is a decision for Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt, whose office advises a determination will be made by mid-December. But only the state government can create a sanctuary for the Leadbeaters possum, in the form of the Great Forest National Park. The Liberal Party has stayed silent on the issue and has not yet released an environmental policy, and in all likelihood wont release one at all, as it did in 2010. The Greens support the park and say declaring it will be a condition of forming government should they gain the seats of Melbourne or Richmond and neither Labor nor Liberal have enough seats to govern in their own right. The Labor Partys long-awaited environmental policy tacitly acknowledges that the Leadbeaters possum is on the verge of extinction and the Victorian logging industry is in crisis. But Labor has committed only to an industry taskforce to look at the issues, with no details, no timetable and no plan if an agreement cant be reached. Its a non-policy that could easily slip from view post-election. Fortunately, there is already a ready-made solution: the Great Forest National Park Plan is backed by 9 out of 10 Victorians, the Royal Society of Victoria, Sir David Attenborough and hundreds of businesses in the region proposed for the park. The logging industry is in crisis, with job numbers dropping 10 per cent in three years, Australian Paper lost $102 million in three years, and the governments logging business, VicForests, lost $11 million in its 10 years of operations and owes $13 million to the Treasury Corporation of Victoria. The Yarra Ranges forests, however, are a major drawcard for the region. Yarra Ranges Tourism says the region attracted 4.67 million visitors in 2012, with 24 per cent visiting the region for bushwalking or rainforest walks, according to Tourism Victoria — twice as many visitors as the regions famous wineries. Already the Great Forest National Park plan has attracted many tourism proposals, including a tree-canopy zip-line tour in Toolangi, an elevated tree-top walkway near Lake Mountain to encourage summer tourism, and a world-class, five-day, overland walking track from Healesville to Marysville to Eildon. Today there are fewer Leadbeaters possums in the wild than orangutangs ReachTel polling conducted for the Wilderness Society shows that many more Victorians will vote for a party that supports the Great Forest National Park than a party that doesnt support it. In Monbulk, of the 8.5 per cent of uncommitted voters, 57.1 per cent said they would more likely vote for a party that supports the park, with just 9.1 per cent saying they were less likely. Of the six per cent of uncommitted voters In Eildon, in the heart of the proposed park, nearly twice the amount of voters said they would vote for a party that supports the park than opposes it, 43.8 per cent to 22.9 per cent. In Prahran, another marginal seat, 44 per cent of voters said they would more likely vote for a support that supports the park to just nine per cent saying they were less likely. In Eltham it was 39.4 per cent for a party that supports a park to 12.4 per cent. The seats and possible government are there for the taking. Its not too late for the major parties to commit to the Great Forest National Park Plan and snare the election with this credible and audacious vision for Victorias environment and the states economy. by Amelia Young @ abc.net.au/environment/articles/2014/11/27/4137349.htm
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 09:11:41 +0000
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