Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens’ Leader, and spokesperson for Parks, Public Lands and Heritage
The draft Master Plan for Freycinet Peninsula is an example of everything wrong with the Liberals attitude to Tasmania’s reserve estate. They plan to allow more than 200,000 visitors into the park in a single month, doing immeasurable damage to its wilderness value.
The draft Plan has been written through with the interests of the tourism industry in mind, with a Steering Committee stacked by government to shut out community and conservation voices.
The Liberals’ ‘vision’ for Freycinet is yet more private development, more high impact visitor infrastructure, more helicopter flights, more cruise ships in Wineglass Bay, and unending growth in visitor numbers.
The Liberals put the protection of the Freycinet National Park and the amenity of Coles Bay residents last.
Their draft Plan projects continued annual visitation growth of 5.5% to Freycinet National Park, with 6400 walkers each day on the Wineglass Bay track by 2027. That’s more than 200,000 people on the track in the month of December, 2027.
That’s unsustainable madness.
If the Liberals have their way Freycinet National Park will be loved to death.
The only sensible way to protect the wilderness and cultural values of the Park is to introduce a cap on visitor numbers.
Local residents are also rightly furious about the lack of consultation on the draft Master Plan.
They want the government to go back to the drawing board, a call the Greens strongly support.
A copy of the Greens’ submission is attached. This stage of the sham public consultation process closed for submissions this morning.
