A STATEMENT by the Victorian National Parks Association has questioned the motives behind the Victorian Government’s “comprehensive” review of Parks Victoria.

The move is raising concerns about the future of Victoria’s popular national parks and reserves, whose integrity is vital for both nature conservation and community wellbeing.

Environment minister, Steve Dimopoulos announced the wide-ranging review and departure of Parks Victoria chief executive, Matthew Jackson on Thursday – the last parliamentary sitting day of the year, with Graeme Dear named as interim boss.

Victorian National Parks Association executive director, Matt Ruchel said nature conservation groups had serious concerns about the move.

“It’s hard to see how major cuts to funding for Parks Victoria combined with an out-of-the-blue review meets community expectations,” he said.

“We are deeply concerned this is a trojan horse for dismantling hard-won nature protections.”

Independent polling released last week reiterated the community’s strong support for national parks.

The results show that 80 per cent of Victorians support national parks and back the creation of new national parks.

“National parks and reserves are key in our efforts to protect nature, and the public overwhelmingly supports that,” Mr Ruchel said.

“While our precious parks are enjoyed for recreation, they also have the crucial role of protecting nature.

“This appears to be completely lost in the scope of review”.

National Parks and reserves provide clean drinking water, climate resilience, community health, support livelihoods, as well as fulfilling international and national policy obligations.

Yet national parks receive less than 0.5 per cent of the state budget.

“Sufficient funding for core management must be central to the review,” Mr Ruchel said.

“Biodiversity decline is in freefall, and combined with recent failures to come good on enhanced protections, this review only deepens our concern.”

The Victorian Government has repeatedly promised “the largest expansion to our forest reserve system in our state’s history since 2023 including new national parks”.

It has walked back this commitment saying they “will not be making any recommendation for large-scale changes to land tenure, including not creating any new national parks”.

The State Government on Thursday failed to legislate new central west national parks in central Victoria, after repeatedly promising to create them by the end of 2024.

“Nature and wildlife protection must be at the core of our parks and reserves for the benefit of Victorians for generations to come,” Mr Ruchel said.

“That’s not just our view – it’s state, national and international law.

“The Victorian Government is legally and morally obliged to make sure Parks Victoria has the resources to fulfil its duties.”

Mr Dimopoulos also revealed that auditing firm Korda Mentha would be brought in to carry out a full independent review of the agency, including looking at its financials and performance.

“The review will focus on Parks Victoria’s priorities, the delivery of its objectives under the Parks Victoria Act 2018, the organisation’s administration, finances, functions and delivery model to identify ways the organisation can reduce red tape, improve customer service and deliver better outcomes for Victorians,” he said.

“It’s clear that Parks Victoria’s current operations need to be improved to meet community expectations.”

 Parks Victoria manages more than four million hectares of parks and reserves.