It is my absolute pleasure to be back in the Wimmera again today (Friday 6 December) and I make no apology for backing in the local community in Natimuk, Horsham (and beyond!) in their outrage over the Parks Victoria decision to ban rock climbing in substantial areas of Mount Arapiles.

As Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health, I have been highly alarmed at the doctors, nurses, other professionals and local health services warning that an already stretched health workforce will lose more staff from the region if the bans remain in place.  The number of passionate rock-climbing enthusiasts from the health workforce is substantial and I am pleased, thanks to the combined efforts of the Nationals at a state level – kudos again to Emma Kealy, Member for Lowan – and federally through myself and colleagues, that the blowtorch has rightly been applied to Labor’s decision.

As frustrating as it that some Victorian Labor backtracking has occurred only after local MPs’ passionate advocacy - through the voices of their community members - we are elected to give you a voice.  We are not out of the woods yet, as a consultation extended to February, the departure of the Parks Victoria CEO and a review of Parks Victoria’s operations are no guarantee the decision will change after the spotlight moves on.

Given the rapid advance of bans on Australians accessing public assets like Mount Arapiles, Uluru (NT), Mount Warning (NSW), parts of the Glasshouse Mountains (Qld), Lake Eyre (SA) and the once famous Mallee Rally at Lake Tyrrell in Mallee, I created the Arapiles Declaration.  The Leader of the Nationals, Federal Shadow Ministers for Indigenous Affairs (Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price), Environment (Senator Jono Duniam), Immigration (member for Wannon, Dan Tehan) and others penned their name to the Declaration’s many important principles.  The first principle is that public land should be accessible to all, and secondly that cultural heritage protection should only result in bans in the most exceptional and evidence-based circumstances.

Mallee residents voted 78 per cent against Prime Minister Albanese’s doomed 2023 referendum and it’s well past time we got Australia back on track.

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