Victoria’s Alpine National Park will soon be free of cattle grazers.

The case for this is quite straight forward. It creates an unacceptable level of environmental degradation. Case closed. I do wonder if it is an unsustainable level of environmental harm. However this is one for the experts and the Victorian Government would certainly have us believe that it is unsustainable - so who am I to argue. It also seems that the argument that the cattle reduce fuel load is weak, particularly when you factor is concerns about water.

I also find the Cattlemen’s argument that “Future generations will condemn this Government for killing off living history” weak.

I posted recently that “social and ecological justice are two inseparable parts of the same whole” - a common theme of mine. I’m concerned that the Bracks government hasn’t adequately addressed the needs of the Cattlemen. From what I have read they will simply be compensated with payment of up to $100,000 over three years - hardly a livable income. Dignity, pride and control of their own destiny needs to be restored as it has obviously been lost. Some Cattlemen (and women!) will be able to continue grazing in State Parks (not National Parks) but I suspect that this will only be a solution for a minority. I don’t know what the alternative is here but I’d suggest that a high level of community consultation is necessary here.

UpdateIn a bizarre twist the Federal Government has decided it will weigh in on the ‘cattleperson’ ban though an emergency heritage listing where the Commonwealth powers supersede the State’s. The justification for this is “in recognition of its social and cultural heritage value,” which sounds very ‘Howard’ to me. It would seem that Howard (or Campbell) thinks that to stop this grazing would erase ‘The Man from Snowy River’ from the pages on the History book. You can’t freeze time.

Once again, a piece of blind conservatism from the Federal government.