Riverside camping: No funding for policing Victorian regulations

No funding has been allocated to regulate campers on crown land water frontages where farmers are licensed to graze livestock.

Draft riverside-camping regulations are yet to be finalised, a spokeswoman for Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio (pictured) says. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Not a single cent of new funding has been allocated in the 2021-22 Victorian budget to police thousands of campers who will be able to pitch tents and light campfires on up to 17,000km of crown land water frontages from September.

During last week’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio conceded no additional money had been allocated to enforce regulations on campers, which neighbouring farmers say are already inadequate.

Opposition Environment spokeswoman Bridget Vallance said Ms D’Ambrosio was unable to give any detail on how the camping regulations would be enforced.

“Labor has failed to recognise how the additional demands placed on these rivers and water frontages by camping will put at risk vital native habitats to pollution, waste and potential bushfires, and expose farmers to unnecessary hazards, biosecurity risks and potential liabilities,” Ms Vallance said.

However, Minister D’Ambrosio’s spokeswoman told The Weekly Times “the draft regulations – including how they’re going to be enforced – are still being finalised and we will have more to say soon”.

“These regulations will provide more certainty by capturing activity that we know already occurs outside of any rules currently in place.

“We are delivering on an election commitment we made to Victorians in 2018 that has been welcomed by over 800,000 fishers and campers.”

It appears no funding has been set aside for regulating campers in the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning budget, which has been cut by $601 million for 2021-22.

At the same time the government is raising the Municipal and Industrial Landfill Levy by 60 per cent from July, from $187.9m this year to $374.5m in the new financial year.

In the past the levy has been used for upgrading its websites, planting trees and drafting climate change “action” plans.

Yet the budget papers reveal the Environmental Protection Authority, which is responsible for protecting the health of the state’s waterways has had its budget cut by $36.2m.

The Victorian Farmers Federation has repeatedly stated it fears farmers, who manage most of the 17,000km of water frontage under grazing licences, will be left to try to stop campers cutting down vegetation or putting their lives at risk by wandering among livestock.

To date the government’s only response has been to give existing Victorian Fisheries Authority power to prosecute people, but with no mention of additional resources, and set up a 24-hour hotline for landholders to report camper misconduct.

MORE

FARMERS LEFT TO POLICE NEW CAMPING REGULATIONS

CAMPING ON CROWN-LAND WATER FRONTAGES TO GO AHEAD

COALITION OF RIVERSIDE CAMPING OPPOSITION