Broken promises: Allan government fails to table key bills

The Allan Government has broken its promise to table radical new animal welfare legislation and bills to create two new national parks.

Premier Jacinta Allan’s government failed to meet promises on delivering new animal welfare laws and national parks this year.

The Allan Government has broken promises to introduce legislation this year delivering radical animal welfare reforms and converting the Wombat and Lerderderg state forests into national parks.

Former Labor Premier Daniel Andrews first promised to rewrite the existing Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act during the 2018 election campaign.

Yet despite repeated rounds of public consultation on the development of draft animal welfare laws, the government failed to table its draft Animal Care and Protection Bill during last week’s final sitting of Parliament for 2024.

Victorian Farmers Federation candidates Danyel Cucinotta and Brett Hosking highlighted the uncertainty producers faced in not knowing what the final bill would look like.

“(It’s) just another example of the government failing to meet its own timeline,” Ms Cucinotta said. “Agriculture is currently flying blind with the exact content of the legislation.”

Mr Hosking said farmers wanted certainty, so they could adapt and plan, but “when it comes to agriculture things get put on the backburner: “It’s important we get it debated and we get a voice in it.”

Agriculture Minister Ros Spence’s office said “it is now expected that the Bill will be introduced into Parliament as soon as possible in 2025”.

“Developing a new Act takes time – and we have taken the time to get the laws right and make sure everyone’s views have been carefully considered.”

Premier Jacinta Allan and her team also promised to introduce legislation to implement the 2019 Victorian Environmental Assessment Council recommendations on converting about 50,000ha of state forests in central and western Victoria into new national parks.

A government spokesman told the ABC last month “legislation to create the first two national parks, Wombat-Lerderderg National Park and Mount Buangor National Park, will be introduced to parliament in November”.

Yet neither the Premier nor her Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos tabled any legislation last week, in what appears to be a bid to try and quell a public backlash over losing access to state forests and Parks Victoria’s inability to manage the 4.12 million hectares it already oversees.

Thousands of tonnes of windblown timber has been left lying on the floor of the Wombat forest, which the government wants to turn into a national park. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Converting more forests to national parks would immediately give Parks Victoria the power to end dispersed camping, under the National Parks regulations, as well as banning camp fires and closing down tracks.

Hunters, fishers, 4WD owners and prospectors currently have the right to camp anywhere in a state forest, as long as it was 20m from a waterway.