More empty rhetoric from the Premier on Bay of Fires National Park?

· How will Parks and Wildlife manage a new National Park at the Bay of Fires on its shrinking budget?

· Labor’s lack of commitment to our Parks proven by its dismantling of the Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and Arts

· Time for some answers from the policy on the run Premier

The Premier must explain how the Bay of Fires area would be better off a National Park, when the parks budget cannot even sustain its current assets, let alone a new park.

The Premier should also outline progress on his grand announcement earlier this year that he had “added strength to the Government’s environmental credentials” with the plan to turn the Bay of Fires area into a National Park.

Does he even know where the boundaries might go? How will local residents be affected? How much will management cost? How will the Parks and Wildlife Service sustain that?

The Bay of Fires announcement has all the hallmarks of yet another one of the Premier’s ill-considered policies on the run – all spin and no substance.

Reports of significant job-shedding and plans for yet another National Parks fee rise in the wake of budget cuts raise real concerns about the ability of the service to sustain a new park.

The State Government has systematically downgraded Tasmania’s precious parks in recent years, culminating with the complete dismantling of the Department of Environmental Parks Heritage and the Arts earlier this year.

Parks Minister Michelle O’Byrne, has stood by and allowed this to happen without so much as a whimper, and is not the advocate in Cabinet that this crucial area needs.

The Tasmanian Liberals have committed to a stand-alone department of Environment and Parks if we win government, because we understand the significance of these sectors to our State achieving its full potential.

We have also called for a long-term strategic management plan to ensure the potential of the Bay of Fires area can be fulfilled, noting that we don’t believe a National Park is the answer. That is even more valid in light of the budget cuts the service is facing.
Sue Napier MP Shadow Minister for Environment