Beverley McArthur MP
Member for Western Victoria Region
Media Statement
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GOALPOSTS SHIFTED AFTER THE GAME STARTED
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Member for WVR, Bev McArthur said ‘that not only have DELWP and VicRoads effectively sent drover, John Wilson packing but they have effectively left the cattle owner with a bill of $50,000.
John was doing an outstanding job in grazing the ‘out of control’ roadside vegetation in the Moyne Shire to the benefit of Shire ratepayers, motorists, local farmers and landowners. He had a valid permit from the Moyne Shire detailing roads they wanted grazed.
It was all going well until bureaucrats from DEWLP and VicRoads decided they didn’t want drovers on roadsides. So a list of 31 new roads were declared ‘out of bounds’ several weeks after the permit was issued which encouraged John Wilson to bring over 360 cattle from NSW to the Moyne Shire.
Since when, in this State seemingly run by red and green bureaucracies can you ‘shift the goalposts after the game has started’?
And since the goalposts were shifted, surely these agencies should be responsible for the extra costs incurred by the party with the agreed and signed initial permit.
This has been a disgraceful saga of bureaucracy running roughshod over a local government instrumentality; the right to graze roadsides and save valuable drought stricken breeding stock; ratepayers who will now have to pick up the bill of roadside maintenance; motorists who are entitled to visibility unobscured by roadside vegetation; and neighboring landowners and farmers requiring fire risk mitigation. Everyone was seeking better outcomes to make our roads and roadsides safe.
And instead of wasting time having officers pursue a drover and his cattle on a daily basis, VicRoads need to repair the potholes, ensure all roads in Western Victoria and probably elsewhere in the State are safe and cease and desist from pursuing an ideological agenda hell bent on stifling legitimate agricultural activity sanctioned by a legitimately elected local government authority.
10 May 2019