THE Coalition's election-year pledge on alpine grazing offers little hope to Victoria's mountain cattlemen, says PAUL SELLARS
The Victorian Nationals received a rousing reception at the Cattlemen's get-together in January when they announced the Coalition's new policy on alpine grazing.
A Coalition government, they said, would restore "strategic" grazing to the park in the name of reducing fuel loads to manage fire risk.
The policy may send the right signals to voters in relevant electorates less than 10 months out from the state election.
But it lacks any realistic prospect of being implemented, even if the Coalition were to oust John Brumby from office in November and obtain a majority in the Upper House.
The Bracks Government legislated to end grazing in the park in 2005 with the unequivocal approval of senior Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria staff and because it had the parliamentary numbers to do so.
The Coalition now says it will restore grazing, not by introducing new legislation to overturn the ban, but by directing DSE and Parks Victoria staff to use cattle to reduce fire risk.
Those staff - both on the ground and at DSE headquarters - are convinced grazing is ecologically destructive and doesn't reduce fire risk.
Many of them had celebratory drinks the week the Government's legislation was enacted in 2005. They won't exactly be queuing up to implement the Coalition's policy.
A Coalition environment minister will instead have to force DSE senior managers to, in turn, make their staff implement it.
Of course, bureaucrats are no strangers to obeying ministerial directives they don't agree with, and the Coalition has vowed to sack any public servant who refuses to implement the policy.
But ministers have to pick their fights carefully with the bureaucrats they rely on for advice.
And how exactly do DSE staff with no knowledge of or belief in the use of grazing as a management tool strategically use cattle to reduce fire risk?
How do they decide on where and when to put cattle when they're convinced they don't reduce fuel loads because they don't graze the most flammable plant matter?
In placing the onus on DSE and Parks Victoria managers, the Coalition is also relying on Victoria's fire code of practice.
That code states that DSE may "authorise grazing regimes ... for fuel management" but that grazing is "appropriate only for significantly modified habitats".
Yet how would the Coalition argue the Alpine National Park fits that description without contradicting itself over its long-held argument that grazing had a minimal impact on the park?
Another huge obstacle to implementing the Coalition policy is the Federal Government's heritage listing of Australia's alpine national parks and reserves in 2008.
That means the return of cattle would require the approval of Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett - hardly a prospect to inspire optimism about the chances of success.
Nor has the Coalition adequately explained why it won't commit to repealing the legislation that ended the licensing system that enabled graziers to take stock into the park each summer.
It has argued the legislation is not irreversible but won't promise to reverse it.
Instead, it simply says it has a "new focus", using cattle to fight fires.
It all sound suspiciously like a policy designed to send the right signals to the regions without making Coalition leader Ted Baillieu's life more difficult by jeopardising votes in inner-city Melbourne.
Victoria's mountain cattlemen may justifiably appreciate the moral support of Coalition MPs in the face of their lock-out from the park.
But they should attach nothing more concrete to the Coalition's election-year policy on alpine grazing.
The Coalition would be doing the cattlemen a favour by acknowledging that if it can't or won't legislate, the chances of cattle ever being allowed back in the park again are almost non-existent.
- Paul Sellars is a senior Weekly Times reporter.
