Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for the call, Mr Speaker. I appreciate it. I rise to raise an issue that is important in my electorate, from Hill End to Hedley and Yarragon, Trafalgar, Thorpdale, Korumburra, Leongatha and Meeniyan and across the whole of South Gippsland. That is the issue of Landcare and the way the government has changed the rules for Landcare, affecting people such as in the photograph I am holding: Phil Piper, Graeme and Rosemary Trease, Susanne Whiteman, Alex Campbell and Mark Uren. They were meeting to consider what has happened with the whole Landcare program since the change of government. I asked Phil Piper to put it in writing so I could send it to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. He wrote:

Dear Russell

Our Landcare group is very concerned with the way Landcare is progressing.

Remember that these people are absolutely passionate about what they have done and what they intend to do in the future. The letter continues:

We are a small but effective group with about 34 people and since our conception in 2002 have planted approximately 50,000 trees. In the 2007 Landcare Awards members of our group won the Primary Producers Award, the Rivercare Award and the Dick Howarth Memorial Award. This year our group won the Group Award. Pretty impressive!

But what is pretty unimpressive is that for 2009/10 there is no funding available for our members to continue our good work. In fact in 2008/9 only 1 of our members received funding and our support people at the local network office are fighting for funding just to keep their jobs.

What has happened to Landcare? It is no longer a grassroots organization, as it was originally set up. It has become a from the top down organization, because to receive funding you have to have a large $20,000 - $50,000 single project, instead of the small projects of the past.

What is the point of small groups like ours (and many, many others) being part of Landcare?

Do you realize that the funding only covers the cost of the trees, shrubs, grasses etc and a percentage of our fencing costs. We provide the balance of the fencing costs, plus all the labour for planting out, weed control, upkeep on fencing, general maintenance for the years that follow for NOTHING.

We have regular meetings and discuss these issues, encourage new members, involve the next generation (School children—Landcare cadets from our local school), try to influence and encourage our neighbours and local farmers again for NOTHING.

Do you realize what a valuable asset these small groups are?

Why is the Federal Government trying to shut us down by starving us of funding?

If the government is serious about addressing climate change, surely they must fund and encourage Landcare groups like ours, to continue to planting trees.

Why don’t they give the $20,000 or $50,000 to the networks so as they can survive and fund the 100s of small groups, like ourselves, so we can continue doing our work?

Please Russell can you help us as our situation is desperate. We all love Landcare and we don’t want to leave it.

Yours in Landcare

Phil Piper

(President)

The work of people like those in this photograph—and they are only a few—resonates throughout my electorate. They are in every area. I have met with them in Inverloch and I have gone from farm to farm and project to project. I have seen the pride in their eyes as they grab their local member and say: ‘Come and see what we’ve done with this creek. See what we’ve done in this valley. See what we’ve done in this area of landslide.’ They are so proud that they will even stop what they are doing for the day just to take their local member out and show him what they have done.

I am therefore quite humbled by the work that is being done right across Gippsland. I know every member of this House can go to areas of their electorates where people are very proud of the work that they are doing on a voluntary basis. But this work in Landcare seems to have been taken off them, not through an intentional change by the government but by another approach where a bigger project—a $20,000 or $50,000 exercise—can be awarded with a plaque. These people are not interested in plaques; they are interested in plants. They are interested in ecology; they are interested in salination of the soil. They are interested in the future of their children and they are interested in the future of the nation. I call on the minister, Tony Burke, to reconsider how that money is being doled out to people, and he might consider for the first time the little people—the little people of Landcare.