Forgotten hills

By Paul Pickering
HILLS environmentalists say they have walked away empty-handed from last Friday’s public morning tea with Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett at Upwey’s Burrinja cultural centre.
Mr Garrett’s appearance added undeniable star-power to ALP candidate Rodney Cocks’ pitch for the vital green vote in the marginal seat of La Trobe.
But, for many, the dialogue from Mr Cocks and Mr Garrett ignored the specific concerns of the local community in favour of national issues such as protecting the Great Barrier Reef and the importance of ratifying the Kyoto protocol.
Chief among those local concerns is the need to address the environmental weed scourge in the Dandenongs.
While many had expected that Friday’s event would have been the ideal opportunity to unveil a vote-winning commitment to the weed battle, neither speaker mentioned the issue while addressing the audience for some 20 minutes.
When pressed about the Shire of Yarra Ranges’ request for $10 million worth of federal funding over five years to combat invasive weeds such as English ivy, Mr Garrett could only point to an impending announcement.
“We will have a policy to address that question in an amplified form on the way to the election,” he said.
Similarly, Mr Cocks said he was “still working out the details in terms of what shape it (the policy) will take”.
Having confronted Mr Garrett and Mr Cocks during the allocated question time, Upper Yarra and Dandenong Ranges Environment Council member Darcy Duggan said he was disappointed with Mr Cocks’ failure to act on the most significant threat to the local environment.
“It’s all very well to talk about protecting the Great Barrier Reef, but there needs to be some acknowledgment of what affects the local area,” Mr Duggan said.
“This was the perfect opportunity to address the needs of the community – and he lost it by ignoring the elephant in the room.”
Shire of Yarra Ranges deputy mayor Samantha Dunn also admitted to being disappointed that Labor had missed an opportunity to make some local announcements.
Mr Cocks, however, was keen to note that Mr Garrett’s appearance dictated that national policy would dominate the discussion.
“Peter’s presentation was national (in focus) and a lot of issues were discussed. That was the point of having Peter there,” he said.
But La Trobe’s incumbent Liberal MP Jason Wood was quick to take the opportunity to question Labor’s commitment to the hills landscape.
“We’ve now had Kevin Rudd come to the electorate twice and we’ve had the potential environment minister come to La Trobe and on all three occasions there’s been nothing promised to the local area,” Mr Wood said.
“If they’re not doing it during the election, the residents must be concerned about what they’ll do if they get into power.”
While Mr Wood pointed to his recent announcement of funding to develop controls for an aggressive weed called wandering trad, he could not make any commitment to the shire’s long-term weed eradication plan – only saying that he was “desperately fighting to get an announcement”.