Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to praise the work of Landcare groups around the country, particularly the work undertaken by Landcare groups within my seat of Corangamite. The geography of my seat is unique. We have a very famous coastline. We have the Great Ocean Road. We have the Surf Coast and the Bellarine Peninsula. We also have some famous Ramsar wetlands and very famous national parks, particularly the Great Otway National Park. It is as a consequence of that unique landscape that I have within my seat a particular passion for the work that Landcare undertakes and for that of its sister organisations such as Coastcare.

I will say a little on the history of Landcare. Landcare was formally established under the Hawke Labor government, with then Minister John Kerin and the late Minister Peter Cook playing a very substantial role in establishing a national Landcare network. At that point, they planned to have by the year 2000 somewhere in the vicinity of 2,000 Landcare groups scattered across the length and breadth of our great nation. In fact, today we have more than 4,000 groups that have been established within Australia, and I think that is absolutely fantastic. Landcare plays an important role in the conservation of our land and the economic sustainability of, particularly, our farming communities. Three-quarters of Australia’s farmers are in one way or another engaged in Landcare in Australia. I certainly think Landcare would be unique on the world stage as an example of participation in a voluntary sense.

The Rudd Labor government is a very strong supporter of Landcare, particularly given that it was our great party, the Australian Labor Party, that established Landcare in a formal sense in the mid-1980s. The Rudd government is spending more than $2 billion on natural resource management in the first five years of our platform Caring for our Country, which is a very substantial contribution to our landscape and which I think will play a very significant role. The federal government is also spending $189 million on Landcare over the same period of time under that platform. The federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Hon. Tony Burke, has announced $33.6 million over four years for a national network of Landcare facilitators to play that important role of organising and driving the work that Landcare needs to undertake throughout the nation. Ministers Garrett and Burke have also announced $5 million for small grants of up to $20,000 for community natural resource management groups such as Landcare, Coastcare and other groups. Corangamite, being a regional electorate, has many important Landcare initiatives being supported by local farmers in partnership with the Rudd Labor government. I think somewhere in the vicinity of $150,000 has been made available to the Otway Agroforestry Network, who work in a very productive way with Landcare.

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