Government accused of secrecy on national parks plans

Claims of secrecy and a flouting of parliamentary process have been levelled at the State Government over whether it plans to declare three state forests as national parks.
Nationals Member for Eastern Victoria Melina Bath has accused Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos of breaching parliament's standing orders by failing to respond within 30 days to questions regarding the future of 77,000 hectares of current state forests and whether it plans to adopt a 2021 recommendation to include them in a large Central West National Park.
Public concern about the recommendation made by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council has been building with a rally at Drouin late last month of more than 1000 recreational bush users - hunters, fishers, campers, trail bike riders, 4WD owners, prospectors and fossickers - and people that had lost jobs through the closure of native forest timber harvesting at the start of this year opposing the national park plan.
Ms Bath, who is the Opposition shadow parliamentary secretary for public land use, said answers to questions she had put to Mr Dimopoulos had not been forthcoming and were now months overdue.
Bush users are concerned about the "lock up and leave" agenda for Victorian state forests and the secrecy and lack of transparency around the proposal to create the new national parks, she said.
"They deserve an honest update on the status of the Labor government's plans".
Ms Bath said two-thirds of 2700 public submissions opposed the national parks plan and many thousands of other people have stated their opposition by signing petitions.