Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek says the Federal budget will double funding for National Parks including Kakadu and Uluru to rectify years of neglect under previous governments

Transcript

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek says the Federal budget will double funding for National Parks including Kakadu and Uluru to rectify years of neglect under previous governments · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now, the Albanezy government set to invest an extra two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two point three million dollars in the
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  Speaker 1: next the twenty twenty three twenty four budget, to address
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  Speaker 1: what's been described as chronic underfunding of Australia's iconic national parks. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in a statement this morning, the federal government said that
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  Speaker 1: our national parks have been left with broken infrastructure, out
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  Speaker 1: of date equipment and inadequate facilities. Now joining me on
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  Speaker 1: the line is the Minister for Environment and Water, Tanya Plibasek.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to your minister.
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  Speaker 2: Great to be with you again, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Now, minister, firstly, how much exactly for the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: and indeed Kakadoo as part of this announcement.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're more than doubling funding to national parks, as
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  Speaker 2: he said, two hundred and sixty two point three million
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  Speaker 2: dollars over four years, and a fair share of that
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  Speaker 2: will come to the Northern Territory, to Kakadoo and to
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  Speaker 2: Ularu and that'll be clear in coming weeks as we
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  Speaker 2: approach the budget. But this comes on top of the
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  Speaker 2: existing spending, and it comes on top of two hundred
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  Speaker 2: and seventy six million dollars which we're investing in Kackadoo
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  Speaker 2: to upgrade the infrastructure. That money is already committed, that's
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  Speaker 2: being rolled out right now. This is in addition, so
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about one hundred and ten new jobs, and
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about making up for really ten years of
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  Speaker 2: neglect by the previous government. I've been obviously to Kackado
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  Speaker 2: not so long ago, and the ranges there and the
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  Speaker 2: people whose businesses depend on Kackadoo have been really disappointed
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  Speaker 2: by the lack of investment in keeping the facilities up
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  Speaker 2: to date and the lack of investment in managing things
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  Speaker 2: like feral animals and invasive weeds. So probably the worst
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  Speaker 2: example I heard was broken and missing crocodile warning signs.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if you're a visitor from overseas in particular,
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  Speaker 2: that's the sort of thing that you really should be
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  Speaker 2: able to rely on.
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  Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, And I think for us locals we sort
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  Speaker 1: of understand that there does seem to have been a
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  Speaker 1: real underspend in Kackadoo and a lack of maintaining in
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  Speaker 1: a lot of different areas, on roads, on infrastructure, on
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  Speaker 1: various different things. But it seems as though there's always
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  Speaker 1: money announced for Kackadoo, but it doesn't seem to make
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  Speaker 1: a huge difference. So what is this funding going to
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  Speaker 1: go towards.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you're quite right that the previous government announced
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and seventy six million dollars for Kakado and
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  Speaker 2: they spent seventeen out of two hundred and seventy six million.
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  Speaker 2: And since coming to government, we've already spent fifty five
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  Speaker 2: million dollars on upgrading Kackadoo, including great projects like the
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  Speaker 2: Kales Crossing Crocodile viewing Platform. I mean, you know, our
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  Speaker 2: visitors love viewing crocodiles, but you can see a lot there.
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  Speaker 2: It spends between you and the crocodile when you're doing
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  Speaker 2: it a safe distance. So investments like that are really important.
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  Speaker 2: But the other stuff that will be doing with this
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  Speaker 2: new money, it's really quite basic stuff like the roof
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  Speaker 2: coming off the ranger station that Jim Jim Falls. There's
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  Speaker 2: not drinking water at some of these campgrounds for the
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  Speaker 2: people who want to go camping there. Making sure that
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  Speaker 2: the signage and the educational and interpretive informations right. So
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  Speaker 2: we'll be upgrading the Warrajoon Visitors Center. There's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of great plans here. And of course that's about the
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  Speaker 2: visitors infrastructure. We've got one hundred and sixty six billion
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  Speaker 2: dollar tourism industry here in Australia. We want our international
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  Speaker 2: and our domestic visitors to get the best possible experience
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  Speaker 2: when they go to these iconic places. It's also about
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  Speaker 2: better managing nature. I mean, these places are World Heritage
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  Speaker 2: listed because they are unique. They are, you know, gyms
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  Speaker 2: in the crown of Australian nature. The fact that we
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  Speaker 2: haven't been we haven't been putting the funding in to
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  Speaker 2: deal with feral animals, to deal with invasive weeds. The
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  Speaker 2: last two extinctions that happened in Australia happened on Christmas
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  Speaker 2: Island and that's just not right. I mean these places,
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  Speaker 2: if we invest in dealing with things like the feral
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  Speaker 2: cats on Christmas Island, we see a huge benefit for
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  Speaker 2: our animals and our plants.
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  Speaker 1: So Walter, you know, what are the feral animals that
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  Speaker 1: we're most concerned about it Kaka do at this point,
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  Speaker 1: and what kind of management are we going to see
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  Speaker 1: with that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we'll do a lot of work with traditional owners.
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  Speaker 2: And when I say there's one hundred and ten yew
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  Speaker 2: jobs here. Thirty percent of park staff are indigenous stuff.
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  Speaker 2: So making sure we're working with traditional owners on feral
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  Speaker 2: animal management is really important. But you know, we know
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  Speaker 2: that water buffalo, for example, are trampling some if they
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  Speaker 2: get in numbers too large, they're really trampling those areas
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  Speaker 2: in a way that's bad for the native animals there.
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  Speaker 2: We're always worried about cats. We're worried about you know, pigs, goats,
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  Speaker 2: Cats really harmful. So there's a million feral cats in
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  Speaker 2: Australia and on average, every one of them kills six
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  Speaker 2: animals a night. The six million animals a night killed
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  Speaker 2: by feral cats in Australia. We've got problems like insects.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if you get yellow crazy ants or other
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  Speaker 2: sorts of invasive insects, they can do They're only tiny,
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  Speaker 2: but they can do an enormous amount of damage when
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  Speaker 2: they get into the natural environment. So wherever you've got
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  Speaker 2: animals that don't belong there, feral animals introduce species like that,
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  Speaker 2: we've got to get right on top of them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, now, Minister, I know that you're not the Tourism minister.
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  Speaker 1: This announcements obviously happening is part of those portfolios for
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  Speaker 1: environment and water. But I think one of the big
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  Speaker 1: things for us here in the Northern Territory as well
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  Speaker 1: is we know that we've got this national gem. We
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  Speaker 1: know that Kakadu is incredible as is you know, the
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  Speaker 1: likes of all la Aru in Central Australia. But it
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  Speaker 1: is so incredibly expensive to be able to get your
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  Speaker 1: family or your friends to visit from interstate or overseas
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  Speaker 1: due to those airline you know, to the ticket prices,
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  Speaker 1: Like it's insane at this point, Is there anything happening
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  Speaker 1: on that national scale to really try to help more
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  Speaker 1: regional parts of Australia to get more tourists to our locations.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I really agree with you. It is one
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  Speaker 2: of the biggest barriers for Australians traveling around Australia, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Some of those domestic heres. He is really frightening. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's always always strikes me as such a
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  Speaker 2: shame that you can get a cheaper holiday overseas sometimes
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  Speaker 2: than you can in your own backyard when we've got
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  Speaker 2: so much to share. Look, we have a we do
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  Speaker 2: have a tourism strategy that my colleague, Minister Senator Don
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  Speaker 2: Barrell is rolling out and I'll leave the details for
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  Speaker 2: him to describe. But Katie, you know our own backyard
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  Speaker 2: in Australia is so beautiful and so worth visiting. We
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  Speaker 2: need to make sure people have a great experience and
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  Speaker 2: that it's affordable.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Minister for Environment and Water, Tanya Plibisk, we always
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time. Thank you very much for joining us
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  Speaker 1: on the show this morning, and we're looking forward to
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  Speaker 1: the finer detail of course when the budget is handed
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  Speaker 1: down well early next month.
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  Speaker 2: Lovely to talk to you.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you,