Member for Mildura, Jade Benham, has called on the Victorian Government to urgently increase funding for roadside weeds and pest management, raising the issue in Parliament with the Minister for Local Government.
Ms Benham highlighted the long-running partnership between Mildura Rural City Council and local dryland farming Landcare groups, which for more than 12 years have delivered coordinated weed and rabbit control across the municipality’s extensive road network.
Mildura Rural City Council manages around 5,000 kilometres of roadside, much of it unsealed and adjoining dryland farming land, yet receives just $85,000 through the State Government’s roadside weeds and pests program.
“The current funding simply doesn’t match the scale of the task facing council and our Landcare groups,” Ms Benham said.
Ms Benham said the region’s roadsides contain some of the last remaining native vegetation in dryland farming areas and provide important habitat corridors for threatened species including the regent parrot, mallee fowl and mallee emu-wren.
“I am calling on the Minister for Local Government to provide additional funding to help council and our local Landcare groups protect these important roadside corridors and the farmland that surrounds them.”
