Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will withdraw again. When we look at this issue before us today, quite clearly it is about mates and not about national parks or about ecology. We know that cattle damage moss beds, which are very fragile. Cattle pollute waterways and create tracks. We saw an example of this during the time we spent up there with the cattlemen and the environmentalists—and this is going to be a good slap at environmentalists. A cow had died in a bog and it was decomposing. It affected the bog. The environmentalists were very quick to say: 'Look, the cow's died in a bog. It's bad.' But at no time did any of them think: 'You know what? We should remove that and protect the environment'. No, they slapped the cattlemen. I brought it to their attention and said: "Well, this is rubbish. If this is so important, why wouldn't you just remove the carcass?' That was the right thing to do, to remove it and to ensure that it did not impact any further on the moss beds. But what if we take away all the arguments that have been put forward by those opposite and sit down and ask: 'What's important? What do we want from the national park?' We want it to be open for a lot of users, for a lot of people to use it and to use it freely.

A fellow that the member for Gippsland and I both know, Mr Devers, will tell you about the time he was chased by cattle through the park when he was bushwalking. Mr Devers is a very good bushwalker and also does alpine rescues. You cannot go to the areas that are okay to camp in because of the cowpats that are everywhere. We have to use it for as many purposes as possible. This includes Wonnangatta Station. I went there and I remember hearing, 'Have a look at it, it's a mess'. If you looked at it as a paddock to put your cows in to graze then it probably did look a mess. But if you looked at the native grasses that were growing there, the kangaroo paw et cetera, in their native environment it was looked pristine. We do not lock people out of there. There is a place there called the widow-maker where the four-wheel drivers go up and down. That is part of it. There are bush tracks for people to walk through and huts for people to stay in when they go fishing and camping.

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