Better Boating Fund falls short: $31m under Treasurer’s control
Victoria’s Liberal-Nationals Opposition has tried to refloat the Andrews Government’s Better Boating Fund to deliver on the promise that every cent of boaters’ fees goes back to ramps, parking and safety.
THE boating industry has lost its first-round bid to ensure every cent of the $31 million they pay in registration and license fees each years goes into a quarantined trust account for the sector.
Opposition boating spokesman David Morris last Thursday lost an attempt for Parliament’s Lower House to support rewriting the Andrews Government’s Marine Safety Amendment (Better Boating Fund) Bill 2020 to remove clauses that left it up to the Treasurer to determine how much of boaters’ fees went into the fund.
Mr Morris said the Bill was more of “a confidence trick” than reform that delivered on Premier Daniel Andrews 2018 election promise that “every cent” would go into a Better Boating Fund.
As it stands Section 271G of the Bill currently states: “There must be paid into the Better Boating Fund (a) any money authorised to be paid into the Better Boating Fund by the Treasurer or the Minister”.
Mr Morris called for the bill to be redrafted to include a method of hypothecating (quarantining) boaters fees to ensure they must go into the Better Boating Fund, rather than leave it to the Treasurer to make the decision.
But Labor MPs dismissed Mr Morris’ amendment and used their numbers to pass the Marine Safety Amendment (Better Boating Fund) Bill 2020 through the Lower House unchanged, from where it will now go to the Upper House.
The Weekly Times asked Boating Minister Melissa Horne: “Must the Treasurer place all marine licence and boat registration fees into a Better Boating Fund Trust Account under the Marine Safety Amendment (Better Boating Fund) Bill 2020?”
Ms Horne said “the funding mechanisms in this legislation are no different to other legislated funds under our Government, such as the Better Roads Victoria Fund.
“We are not in the business of short-changing Victorians, and it’s on the record in Hansard that every cent raised from licensing and registration will go straight back into boating.
Boating Industry Aassociation of Victoria advocacy committee member David Heyes said the Government had lost its “moral compass” when it came to delivering on its promise.
“They could put a line in the Bill that says all boaters’ fees must go into the fund,” Mr Heyes said. “Yet they refuse to do it.”
“It’s at the Treasurer’s discretion, which means he could like the boating industry this year and then not in future years. It doesn’t give boaters the confidence they want for the next five, 10 or 20 years.”
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