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Friday, January 20, 2006
GIVE BRACKS THE BOOT Some suggested it might be the last Victorian Mountain Cattlemen's Get Together but the record attendance and the mood of defiance at Rose River Station last weekend illustrated the fight the Bracks Government has on its hands to get rid of the iconic bushmen. While the cattlemen's campaign is gathering strength the state government and its allies at the Victorian National Parks Association are floundering. Mountain Cattlemen took the fight back to their own country after their big protest rally on Parliament last June and returned cattle to the Alpine National Park as they had promised they would do. And what has the government done about it? Nothing! Environment Minister John (Twitter) Thwaites didn't want to know. He handballed the problem to his bureaucrats. It was the bogging of a ranger vehicle in Wonnangatta during the protest cattle drive that symbolised for me the impotence the government experienced in dealing with the cattlemen's action, and indeed, its impotent management of the Alpine National Park. It also symbolised ignorance. How could parks rangers, supposedly experienced in the mountains and valleys of Gippsland, be so ignorant of the environment that they drove their vehicle into a bog? It wasn't as if the reeds surrounding the bog weren't a visible warning. As I write this bushfires are burning out of control at Erica near Mt Baw Baw, homes are being evacuated and the danger of the fire being joined by new outbreaks is extreme as the heat wave extends into February. Could it be that another bushfire tragedy is looming in the Victorian high country only three years after the last one destroyed vast areas of the mountains? God forbid that wildfire destroy any more country, any more homes and properties or take any lives. But what if it does? What direction will the state government take? Will it persist in following its radical green agenda? Of course it will. Power is the name of the political game and the ALP will sacrifice anything in order to retain it. The mountains may burn, properties be destroyed and lives might be lost but all will be well in state cabinet as long as the Labor Party retains its green preferences and gets over the line at the election on November 26 this year. Rural groups such as the Mountain Cattlemen's Association Of Victoria (MCAV )and Country Voice want to make that prospect as remote as possible. As MCAV president, Doug Treasure, told 4000 supporters at the Get Together last week the association is becoming political in its own defence. He wants to see other groups do the same. A committed network of country organisations is needed that will work together with the single objective of removing the worst government Victorian country people have ever had to deal with. If you are a Victorian farmer you can't cut down a tree on your own land without being forced to plant many more to replace the one you removed, your children's grandparents (if they happen to be farmers) need a permit to care for their grandchildren, you need a permit to rip up a rabbit warren, the state government owns the water that falls on your land and in a couple of years you'll be lucky if you're not paying a clean air tax for the privilege of living in the country. Back in June country people took their case to Melbourne with the Country Voice Rally. They called the protest Enough Is Enough. It was a good name. Enough is enough and country Victoria has taken enough kicks from this mob to boot them out on the full permanently. The Victorian election will be held on November 26 this year. Philip Maguire blogs at http://bundarrahdays.blogspirit.com Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by Great Divide at 4:48 PM |
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