Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Deputy Speaker, the news of public service cuts does raise serious concern for our Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRE), who are already underfunded and seriously under‑resourced. What will this mean for critical sites like Mount Pleasant? What will it mean for the forgotten segment of Parks and Wildlife amid an extinction and biodiversity crisis? What will it mean for biosecurity? NRE is an absolute essential service, everybody in the entire NRE. It must be growing, not shrinking.
Exactly what these cuts will be we do not know because we still do not have a definition of what ‘essential workers’ and ‘frontline workers’ actually are. As we heard from the Premier yesterday, if you wear high‑vis, you will have no greater support than this government. Perhaps all Parks staff, NRE, Land Titles Office staff and public service workers should start wearing high‑vis.
We do not want to see Trumpian style politics creep into our Parks and Wildlife Service, into our World Heritage Area. In the United States in the past month, more than 4000 national parks and forest workers have lost their jobs as President Trump, Elon Musk, and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) shrinking the federal workforce. These cuts have already had a huge impact. We are seeing visitors in huge lines at park entrances, trails are being closed and public facilities are not being cleaned. How would it look if we saw anything like this happen in Tasmania? What would that do for our global nature-based tourism brand?
Dr Woodruff – A disaster.
Ms BADGER – It would, indeed, be a disaster, Dr Woodruff. Part of the US cuts are also to the fire service and that is unthinkable here when we consider any kind of cuts or recruitment freeze, as over 100 000 hectares of ancient landscape are still burning on our west coast. I know Ms Johnston mentioned it this morning but I would like to read into the Hansard part of the email from acting secretary of the TFS.
Subject: Recruitment Freeze Update;
The government has identified that the freeze does not apply to frontline services such as sworn Tasmania Police officers and Tasmania Fire Service firefighters, however we recognise all services provided by our staff are important to supporting and delivering our responsibilities to a safe Tasmanian community and workforce. [TBC]
On Monday, when the Premier said that there would be a comprehensive review of government programs, it was to eliminate duplication waste and unnecessary spending. Well, one example of wasteful and non-essential spending is the failed tourism expression of interest process, which, in the past decade, has seen just nine projects commence. There are no doubts that the cuts to political moves like EOI is not what this government has in mind, so what do the Liberals consider examples of important and essential expenditure within our parks?
The proposed $40 million Tyndall Range Walk, which over the weekend the government admitted its own ill logic in designing the walk initially and has now made changes, including coming to the realisation that some people actually like camping in a tent and do not need a gimmicky two-person private pod. There was also a soft launch of a privatisation of commercial operations on the publicly funded walk that was done through the frequently asked questions sheet.
Is this possibly a hint of the lack of otherwise viability for this project because where is the current updated business case or feasibility study? That $40 million price tag has been on this project since 2021 and Tasmanians are not fooled into thinking that inflation somehow has miraculously not affected this project, not to mention the ongoing design changes. The Tyndall’s Walk is non-essential and the government should, if it wants to just splash around $40 million, put that straight into growing and not shrinking our park service.
What about the Cradle Mountain cableway? Let us not forget that started at $60 million with a 50/50 split between the state and federal government. I cannot remember if it was Monday or Tuesday, the Premier said, as their federal election asks, ‘They were asking for $180 million for the cableway and an 80 per cent split from the federal government.’ If the $180 million is now the 80 per cent split, that makes it $225 million that this cableway has now increased to, from $60 million.
State Growth said they were making a revised business case for the cableway, where is it? If this price has been updated that we can go to the feds for it, we need that business case. Last time the federal government did not come to the party because we did not have a business case, so is this government going back and repeating the past without the proper paperwork being in place?
Acting Chair, to conserve and protect our wild places we have to have a fully resourced, upscaled Parks and Wildlife Service and NRE. Our Parks and World Heritage Area are our state’s greatest safeguard against biodiversity loss and they are our climate protection assets. Let us get our priorities right and ensure our magnificent wild places remain so for future generations.
