Ms TIERNEY (Western Victoria)– My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Environment and Climate Change. It concerns the Napthine government’s announcement that it will cut 60 jobs from Parks Victoria. Sixty jobs is a significant number of jobs in anyone’s language, but in terms of Parks Victoria’s payroll it is an enormous number of people. It means that 60 fewer people will have an income, and those 60 people will not be able to contribute to their families and households. It also means 60 fewer people will be working tirelessly to protect the Victorian environment, an environment that is under attack and has been increasingly under attack since the election of the coalition government. The Labor government put the environment very high on its priority list, not just in terms of policy but also in terms of the implementation of programs. Under the watch of this government we only hear about the environment when it announces cuts to spending.
The action I seek from the minister this evening is that he provide detailed information on the consequences of cutting these 60 jobs from Parks Victoria. I seek written information from the minister on the location of each job that will be cut, in particular the jobs that will be cut in western Victoria. I also seek information on the functions performed by the 60 staff which will no longer be performed, information on the programs that will be cut or curtailed as a result of this announcement and details on what monitoring mechanisms will be put in place to record the impact that the job cuts will have on the Victorian environment.
