Environment a major factor

It has many years since there was such a clear challenge to election candidates in Bass with a local environment focus.

The recent forum at Corinella saw most candidates declare they’d fight to call a halt to sand mining of the Westernport Woodlands, while alternative resources are assessed. 

However, candidates from the parties currently holding most seats in Spring Street - Labor and Liberal - both evaded such commitment, instead banging on endlessly about legislative process, permit bureaucracies, previous reviews, contracts and essential materials, etc. etc. 

But this takes us voters for mugs! We know all that! That’s exactly why we want - from all candidates and parties - a clear-eyed commitment to bust through such ‘rules’ at this urgent juncture. 

With current sand extraction fast making a swiss cheese of the woodland, and  more of  this bio-rich but neglected forest earmarked for future mining, another decade of ‘business as usual’ will leave us with nothing but shredded bushland remnants. 

When the pandemic hit two years back, the rules went out the window: life was more important. 

So is the life of threatened species.

Bass candidates should remember the fate of the Minister for Lands some 50 years ago when he promoted commercial development of the Little Desert in western Victoria: he lost his seat, and the

Bolte/Hamer government tore up the rule-book, began a national park expansion program - and stayed in power for another decade.

Ken Blackman, Inverloch