During a frenetic end to the Parliamentary sitting year in Canberra, residents of Natimuk, the Wimmera and Mallee- and Australia’s rock-climbers – wrote to me lamenting the Allan Labor Government shutting down approximately half the rock climbing routes at Mount Arapiles.

As Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health I spoke in Parliament about the way this decision will not only devastate Natimuk but the Wimmera’s health workforce, with so many rock-climbing enthusiasts among our health professionals. Sadly, several told me they will now leave, or abandon plans to buy a home in the region.  

I commend The Nationals’ Member for Lowan, Emma Kealy for her efforts to preserve Natimuk and Mount Arapiles for everyone.  

Federal Shadow Ministers for Indigenous Australians, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and the Environment, Jono Duniam, shared my outrage and we moved motions drawing on the Mount Arapiles debacle to again highlight Labor’s disconnect with everyday Australians.

Australia comprehensively rejected Prime Minister Albanese’s divisive, unnecessary half-a-billion-dollar ‘Voice’ referendum, especially so in Mallee with over 78 per cent voting ‘No’ to the Voice.  Like the many rock-climbing enthusiasts who wrote to me, Australians respect indigenous heritage but oppose governments excluding Australians from national treasures without consultation.  Mount Arapiles rock climbers established traditions of leaving no impact where they climb.  Meanwhile, State Labor governments treat decent Australians as problems needing to be banned, pressing on with treaties and Voices as though the referendum never happened.

From climbing Uluru to closing Mount Warning in northern New South Wales, banning access to Lake Eyre in SA and now Mount Arapiles in the Grampians, Australians wonder: what rights will we lose next? Cultural heritage also cancelled Australia’s then-longest-running off-road rally, the Mallee Rally and a well-advanced tourist development at Lake Tyrrell, at great irrecoverable cost to landowners.

In the early Voice debate, Western Australian Labor’s radical cultural heritage laws were shelved due to farmer concerns they would bring their farms to a standstill.  I hope as the Coalition brings the national spotlight to Mount Arapiles, Victorian Labor will return to consultation and common sense so this international rock-climbing mecca is open to all.

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