The announcement of a review into Parks Victoria should include an examination of the Minister’s poor performance, according to Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull.

Mr Bull, who has long been a critic of what he describes as, “the government’s most useless department”, said the problems stem from the Minister himself.

“In announcing the review, it was also said Parks Victoria CEO, Matt Jackson, will be moved on but replacing him will have little impact unless the Minister himself sets a new agenda and culture within the department,” Mr Bull said.

“Minister Dimopoulos signed off on the rock climbing ban at Mt Arapiles that has caused huge friction between First Nations people and rock climbers, then said one of the reasons for sacking Mr Jackson was because ‘current operations need to be improved to meet community expectations’.

“He has also cut the Parks Victoria budget by $96 million, then says the review will look at ‘how the organisation can better serve the needs of Victorians and help them enjoy the great outdoors’. Resourcing them properly will be a good start!

“This simply reads like the CEO taking the fall for a Minister who has completely mismanaged his department.”

Mr Bull said he hoped the change would now result in overdue work being completed locally.

“The fifth anniversary of the fires is approaching, and we still have projects like the Cape Conran cabins not started, jetties and day picnic areas around Mallacoota not rebuilt and many tracks and trails not opened.

“One can only hope the review puts pressure on to get this overdue work done.”

“In concluding, I want to make clear my criticism of the department is not a reflection on the local workforce who generally do a very good job, it is the bureaucracy of the department the Minister has been unable to sort out,” he said.

Pictured: An aerial view of the vacant Cape Conran cabin site along with State Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, pictured next to the Cape Conran cabin rebuild billboard, taken back in 2022.

Monday, 23 December 2024

Two local Country Fire Authority (CFA) groups representing numerous brigades have said the poor road quality is now impacting emergency services organisations being able to deliver timely and safe responses and has asked the Roads Minister if she will take responsibility for any fatal or serious injury collisions that occur on roads in Far East Gippsland.

Nationals Gippsland East MP, Tim Bull, used his final speech in Parliament to ask Roads Minister, Melissa Horne, three questions that were motions from a local meeting of the Orbost and Mount Delegate Fire Brigade Groups. These were:

• The previous federal government committed funding to repair the Mallacoota-Genoa Road, which has not been undertaken. When will these funds be expended on this severely deteriorated, but vitally important road?
• Will the Minister accept a degree of responsibility for any fatal or serious injury collisions that occur on the Mallacoota-Genoa Road; and the Princes, Bonang and Monaro Highways due to neglect on the Minister’s watch?
• What financial, physical and emotional cost should those who are forced to travel on unsafe country roads, consider acceptable; to enable a replication of public transport and road network under the Melbourne metropolitan area?

Mr Bull said the local CFA groups made a number of other pertinent points in their correspondence, all of which he agreed with, and included:

That over the past several years, there has been a significant decline in the quality and safety of the roads throughout our region. This decline in quality is now impacting emergency services organisations to deliver a timely and safe response and is also causing undue wear and tear on appliances, some of which are over 30 years old.

Roads such as the Mallacoota-Genoa Road, Bonang, Princes and Monaro Highways have become increasingly difficult to navigate due to dangerously severe potholes, uneven surfaces, and deteriorating signage. Coming into a high transient tourist season, this increases the likelihood and severity of high speed, high impact collisions.

That historically, the Victorian road network was superior to and the envy of New South Wales. Now, there is a discernible difference when you cross the border. The difference is not favourable. The degraded road surface along the Monaro and Princes Highways from the border has deteriorated so much, it has caused the speed limit to be reduced in places to 40km.

There has already been a noticeable increase in motorbikes using Bonang Highway as a destination ride. With the lack of repairs, maintenance and safety railings, safety of all road users has been compromised.

We understand that infrastructure maintenance is an ongoing challenge across regional Victoria, but the current state of the roads in East Gippsland has reached a critical point.

Although the Government has by choice undertaken an extensive tunnelling and other major infrastructure projects, this should not come at the cost of maintaining our existing road network, that supports the transport industry, tourists and locals alike.

Mr Bull said the two brigade groups were simply articulating what many in the region knew and highlighted matters many country Victorian MPs, including himself, have raised in Parliament on a number of occasions, that our roads are as bad as they have been for decades.

“The bottom line is, when you cut roads funding to the level this government has, it can only end one way. It is a symptom of not being able to manage the State’s finances and we all pay the price,” he said.

Monday, 23 December 2024

Labor’s latest announcement to appear as though it is supporting timber industry communities will be seen as a waste of money that will amount to little, according to Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull.

“The government media release says it ‘will boost the local economy of forestry towns’, but when you read on, it is to ‘upskill community members to help identify future economic opportunities’ and to ‘identify initiatives by local Innovation Working Groups through the Local Development Strategies’.

Mr Bull said he had never heard so much ‘mumbo jumbo’ in all his life and given this was round two of funding, challenged the government to show how many replacement timber industry jobs round one had produced.

“Instead of facilitating replacement industries itself, the government throws money at these airy-fairy programs, so it can say it is supporting these communities.

“Fancy saying they are going to ‘upskill community members to identify future economic opportunities’. This is something the government should have done itself before it closed down the native timber industry.

“In relation to ‘identifying initiatives by local Innovation Working Groups through the Local Development Strategies’ – I hope the Minister comes back in 12 months’ time to tell us how many firm ongoing jobs this fund created to replace the hundreds they took away.

“And while this is going on, we still have timber industry businesses not receiving the support they were promised.

“This includes firewood contractors who received their supply from VicForests and have now had to shut down their business, without compensation. Another wants to retain staff to transition into a new area of their business but has been told they can’t access the funds to retrain employees, unless they first make them redundant.

“Fixing these issues would be real support for the timber industry community,” he said.

Friday, 20 December 2024

The commentary from retiring Treasurer, Tim Pallas, that he has left the Victorian economy in a “solid and improving” position is laughable, according to Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull.

“While I find Mr Pallas to be a personable and friendly individual and wish him all the best, the reality is he has left the state as a financial basket case. He, like Daniel Andrews, now rides off into the sunset leaving the train wreck for others,” said Mr Bull.

“The following figures tell the story from when he inherited Government from the Liberals and Nationals in 2014, who had reduced State debt in their term.

Net Debt
2014: $21.2 billion
2024-25 Budget Update: $155.2 billion (forecast to hit $187b)
Increase: 632.1 per cent

Net Debt to Gross State Product
2014: 6.0 per cent
2024-25 Budget Update: 24.2 per cent
Increase: 303.3 per cent

Tax Revenue
2014: $16.9 billion
2024-25 Budget Update: $39.2 billion
Increase: 131.7 per cent

Land Tax Revenue
2013-14 Annual Financial Report: $1.7 billion
2024-25 Budget Update: $7.7 billion
Increase: 365.2 per cent

Payroll Tax Revenue
2013-14 Annual Financial Report: $4.9 billion
2024-25 Budget Update: $11.1 billion
Increase: 124.9 per cent

Government Employee Expenses
2014: $18.0 billion
2024-25 Budget Update: $37.5 billion
Increase: 108.3 per cent

“Now he walks out the door two days after telling us the Fire Services Property Levy on households, businesses and farmers will skyrocket.

“Other states like NSW and Queensland went through Covid and natural disasters, arguably to a higher level than Victoria, but have managed their debt levels by having greater control over spending and not being dictated to by unions, which has caused massive blow outs.

“In addition, he has been no friend of country Victoria. We hold 25% of the state’s population but have received only 13% of the infrastructure spend over recent years.

“Sadly, like we experienced when Daniel Andrews departed, it will be the same old Labor heading us down the wrong path,” he said.

Monday, 16 December 2024

Get set for your Fire Services Property Levy (FSPL) to double as the result of this hopeless State Labor Government not being able to manage money.

This is the warning from Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, who said last week’s announcement the FSPL would double, was nothing more than a cash grab to pay for services that were previously funded out of general revenue in the annual State Budget.

“Homeowners, businesses and farmers will be paying at least double, and in some cases more, with the FSPL to be rebranded the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund (ESVF),” Mr Bull said.

“Victorian homeowners can now expect to pay 17.3 cents for every $1,000 in Capital Improved Value - up from 8.7 cents.

“Commercial, industrial and primary production landowners face increases of 100 per cent, 64 per cent and 189 per cent respectively.”

Mr Bull said what Premier Jacinta Allan and recently resigned Treasurer Tim Pallas won’t tell you, is these services (Triple Zero Victoria, the State Control Centre, Forest Fire Management Victoria, SES and Emergency Recovery Victoria) were all previously funded via general revenue.

“In that case, we should be seeing tax cuts to compensate given we are to pay for these agencies and services through a different process, but that has not and will not occur.

“The government recently cut tens of millions of dollars from Triple Zero Victoria, the CFA and SES and now wants to paint itself as a white knight for taxing you more to give the money back they cut from these critical services.

“These are all important agencies we need, and we need funded well, but the bottom line is if these two managed the budget properly there would be no need for these whopping increases. However, they have got themselves into a situation where they have a debt hitting $187 billion and $26 million a day in interest.

“That is where this comes from, it’s simply taxing your hip pocket more and attempting to sugarcoat it.

“The announcement came on the back of the mid-year budget review, which showed Victoria was $1.5 billion worse off than forecast by the former Treasurer six months ago.

“The excuse he gave was ‘additional funding was provided to hospitals’, which of course comes after the health budget was previously cut by $2 billion!”

Monday, 16 December 2024

Local contractors who undertake important pre-summer fire preparation work have been shunned by the Labor State Government.

The panel of workers undertakes such tasks as vegetation clearing, hazardous tree removal, and maintaining fire tracks, but this year have not been engaged to anywhere near the level of past years and in some cases, not at all.

Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, said that apart from leaving us more vulnerable to the upcoming fire season, these families rely on this income and have now been left struggling after regular work volumes have failed to materialise.

“There was concern that the timber industry harvest and haulage contractors who were employed by the government would push the contractor panel out of work, but the government emphatically stated several months ago it had a separate funding pool and contractors would receive ‘similar volumes of forest and fire management works’,” said Mr Bull

“However, that simply hasn’t occurred. Some who have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts for major works over recent years, have simply not been engaged as their machine sits idle.

“Several have raised with my office their alarm about the significant discrepancy between DEECA's promises and the actual allocation of work.

“Many are too scared to speak out as they know how vindictive this government can be.

“Not only has this government shut down our timber industry, but they are now forcing these contractors out of work, at the same time our fire access tracks are overgrown and there is so much pre-fire season work to be done.

“I suspect this is simply yet another case of Labor running out of money and making cutbacks to country services we rely on, to service their debt, which is headed to $187 billion by 2026 with interest repayments of $26 million per day.

“I have asked Minister Dimopoulos in parliament several questions around the allocation of work compared to previous years and I look forward to his responses,” said Mr Bull.

Monday, 9 December 2024