NATIONALS Senator for Victoria Bridget McKenzie has voiced her support for the Victorian Government’s application for a cattle grazing trial in the Victorian Alpine National Park
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Ms McKenzie attended the Mountain Cattlemen’s Association of Victoria Annual Festival over the weekend near Omeo. She said the decision to ban a cattle grazing trial by the previous Labor Government to shore up vulnerable seats in inner Melbourne was blatantly political.
‘‘There are many people who live in Victoria’s Alpine areas and right across the nation, who value mountain cattle men and women as pioneers, as guides, as contributors to fire suppression activities, as skilled land managers and environmental stewards,’’ Ms McKenzie said.
‘‘Many Australians view sustainably managed cattle grazing on the high plains as an important tradition and recognise it as a legitimate use of the Alpine area.’’
Ms McKenzie said the weekend’s event was a celebration of community and tradition 150 years in the making.
‘‘It is timely to reconsider the decisions of the former Labor government which assumed it could impose the values of the people living in Brunswick on the people living in Benambra,’’ she said.
‘‘We can get the balance right between protecting and enjoying our national parks.
“Caring for and using our natural resources do not have to be mutually exclusive concepts.”