Funding for Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) must be significantly increased in the 2017 Budget to give it the resources needed to protect our natural and cultural heritage values, said two of the key stakeholders in our conservation reserve system.
The Community & Public Sector Union (CPSU) and the Wilderness Society (TWS) today called on the Hodgman government to ensure its 2017 budget responds to the November 2016 Auditor General’s Report into Park Management, which found that in 2014/15 funding for our Parks and Wildlife Service ‘per hectare continued to be low compared to other jurisdictions or funding of PWS in previous years.’ (pg 3)
The government response to the report has been ineffectual and focused on one-off commitments to tourism projects rather than an ongoing boost to recurrent funding. The CPSU and TWS are calling on funding for PWS to be increased to $20 per hectare by 2020.
“Our National Parks, Reserves and World Heritage areas have been established to protect their unique natural and cultural values for future generations”, said CPSU General Secretary Tom Lynch.
“Underfunding PWS means they are unable to protect these values and places at risk Tasmania’s reputation and the industries that rely on our wonderful reserved land”, said Mr. Lynch.
The Auditor General’s report found Tasmania’s PWS received funding of $12 per hectare compared with $51 per hectare in Victoria, $37 per hectare in New South Wales and a national average of $26 per hectare. (pg 20) The report highlighted the shortfall in funding was impacting PWS ability to manage pest, disease and weed incursions.
“Tasmania’s National Parks and Reserves hold some of our most valuable natural and cultural heritage and underpin our identity, economy and future prosperity. The people we entrust with their management deserve the resources they require to protect these special values”,” said TWS spokesperson Vica Bayley.
“In an era of climate change, mass tourism and budget cuts, the Parks and Wildlife Service is having to do more with less, an untenable situation that risks permanent damage to park values, unreasonable pressure on staff and the very credibility of the image we project to the world,” said Mr Bayley.
Vica Bayley Tasmanian Campaign Manager The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) Inc.
