IN A COMMENT piece in the South Gippsland Sentinel-Times in December last year, just after the dangerous Gurdies Bushfire incident, we highlighted the fact that the Bass Coast Shire Council was being paid $1.1 million annually to offset vegetation lost and emissions created on three VicRoads projects.
We asked if the Bass Coast Shire Council should be in the land management business, in relation to its Gurdies bush reserve, if it wasn’t managing the area properly.
Apparently, they are managing the land and undertaking the required maintenance on firebreaks and the like.
Effectively, however, it was one government department paying another government department $1.1 million annually for bushland that was already there, and unlikely to be cleared, to stay there in perpetuity.
That’s $1.1 million for just 52.2 hectares of land, every year since 2019, so what’s that? More than $6 million by now for a block of land the government could have purchased outright for little more than one year’s payment. A rort surely!
The issue was also raised during question time at last month’s council meeting by regular correspondent Gina Rosamilia, with CEO Greg Box notifying the community that the scheme had actually commenced in 2014. The offset credits funding, he said, created an obligation on Council to deliver works in accordance with set conditions. Whatever is left over after goes into the shire’s general revenue. A “nice little earner”, as they say.
But how many of these carbon credit purchase schemes is the cash-strapped state government paying for “in perpetuity” to offset vegetation lost and emissions created on roads and other projects while saddling the state treasury with permanent debt?
The problem being that while this adds to the level of so-called non-discretionary spending, necessities like fisheries enforcement officers, coastal erosion response and even basic things like new speed restriction signs are crowded out of the state budget.
Surely, a review of how much the state government is spending on offset credits is in order, Minister Symes?
Not that I’m advocating for an effective cut to Bass Coast revenue. It’s high time both the state and federal government reformed funding for local government, especially reviewing the unfair hit to the owners of homes and other property in regional areas. Haven’t heard anything about that from the candidates yet.
