Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on this motion and to say 'Happy Birthday' to Landcare. They are celebrating 25 years of doing fantastic environmental work in this nation. Happy birthday, Landcare. It is very interesting to be here in the house because I have a family involvement in Landcare going back a very long time. As a matter of fact, in Victoria there were two female ministers who were heavily involved in Landcare when it started off—one of them was the former Labor Premier Joan Kirner; the other one was my mother. So it is particularly good to be here today to talk about Landcare's achievements over 25 years and to reach out to the other side to say: 'It's great that we still have bipartisanship when it comes to Landcare and everything that it has to offer.'

In this year's budget we sought to make sure that there is still a workforce for Landcare and to ensure that Landcare projects are properly developed and properly implemented. We have done this by bringing the Green Army into the Landcare program. To those opposite who are looking a little bit cynical about this, even though it always had a bipartisan approach, let me give one example: Basalt to Bay in my electorate. I see the shadow agriculture minister is in the House, and I invite him to the electorate of Wannon to see this project.

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