A new report into the Baillieu Government’s environmental record into the state’s environment has found that the decisions taken by the government will have a detrimental effect on Victoria’s food and energy security, cost of living and liveability.

Environment Victoria CEO Kelly O'Shanassy, who commissioned the report, said a public poll of over one thousand Victorians shows the government’s decisions are not aligned with the aspirations of the community.


“The report shows that Victoria is heading down the wrong path when it comes to keeping Victorians’ power and water costs down, ensuring we have a liveable city and clean and efficient power production and a healthy environment"

“Our research shows that the majority of Victorians think the environment is getting worse under the Baillieu Government"


“Victorians want more efficient and less polluting energy, cleaner rivers, and more efficient water use"


“The polling found that Victorians are proud of their environment and the benefits it provides to their lives.

“Interestingly, many Victorians do not know about some of the damaging decisions made by the Baillieu Government such as making new wind farms difficult to build and reducing support for solar power. When they learned about the actions of the Baillieu Government they didn't support those actions"

“Victorians want liveable cities, not urban sprawl. They want the government to make decisions that enhance the natural environment and ease the pressure on the cost of living. But the government’s decisions are taking us in the opposite direction"

“The report summarises the findings of the poll, and details the broken environmental promises and the environmentally damaging decisions of the Baillieu Government and assesses their impact on regional areas”, said Ms O'Shanassy. 

“The report includes a summary of what Victorians want in various areas of environmental policy, what decisions the Baillieu Government has taken and what a smart state would do instead.

Some of the key decisions made by the Baillieu Government, which are unpopular with Victorians include:

- Scrapping the plan to cut Victoria’s greenhouse pollution. (76 per cent of Victorians think the state government has a responsibility to reduce greenhouse pollution.)

- Making solar power more expensive for Victoria’s families.  (78 per cent of Victorians want more solar and wind power).

- Announcing plans to dig up Victorian holiday places and farmland for mega-brown coalmines. (Only 7 per cent of Victorians want more coal and 63 per cent want less coal over the next five years)

- Supporting polluting coal while destroying investment and jobs in wind and solar energy. (50 per cent think the Government’s wind farm planning laws are unfair, while only 22 per cent think they are fair.)

- Undermining national attempts to save the Murray River. (Providing enough water to the Murray Darling Basin was rated second most important thing to do to protect Victoria’s rivers and waterways.)

Impacts for Melbourne:

Ms O'Shanassy said the report shows significant public concerns about Melbourne’s liveability, energy efficiency, cost of living and food and energy security.

“The addition of six new suburbs to Melbourne’s fringe with limited public transport and services and which destroy green wedges will not reduce congestion or improve the liveability of Melbourne.

“A smart state would be managing the current sprawl, protecting grasslands and green wedges, and investing in public transport to ease congestion and pollution.

“The Baillieu Government has made some progress in making homes and businesses more efficient, but there’s still no plan for a large scale retrofit of Victorian homes for water and energy efficiency to reduce the cost of power and water and reduce consumption.


“At a time when smart governments are investing in renewable energy like solar and wind to reduce the impact on the environment the Baillieu Government is making solar more expensive and wind harder to build.


“At the same time, it’s considering new coal fired power stations and mining and exporting more highly polluting brown coal.


“Victorians are missing huge opportunities because of the decisions of this government. We could be making power and water use more efficient, investing in cleaner forms of power and new jobs, and protecting our rivers and food production but instead we’re moving backwards.”

An official report reveals our most at-risk townships - which the Bushfires Royal Commission demanded more than 700 days ago should have refuges - will be without them this summer.

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Mr Comrie said while the Fire Services Commissioner was investigating a plan to include community shelters as part of new fire stations and public buildings, the issue must be dealt with "as soon as possible".



Dr Lachlan Fraser, who survived the horrific Black Saturday blazes that killed 173 people, said the Government should have acted sooner. "Three and a half years is long enough to act," he said.

THE boss of gaming giant Tatts Group has launched a scathing attack on the Baillieu Government to justify the company's decision to move its headquarters to Brisbane.

Tatts will no longer call Melbourne home from next year, ending a 59-year link and taking about 40 executive positions with it.

The decision was unveiled within 48 hours of the company losing its shared control of poker machines in Victoria.

It had made billions of dollars since 1992 and now threatens to sue the state for $590 million in lost pokie earnings.

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and his transport minister are at odds over the government's showcase election promise to have two armed guards at every metropolitan train station.

One of the key promises the coalition took to the November 2010 state election was there would be two armed protective services officers (PSOs) at every Melbourne railway station and at major regional stops from 6pm until the last train.

When quizzed about the pledge today, Mr Baillieu said his expectation was two PSOs would be sent to every station, but ultimately their deployment was a matter for Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay.



"We have provisioned and the policy is for there to be enough for two on each station in the hours scheduled, but this is about changing the culture."

When repeatedly pressed on whether this was a change in policy, the premier said he had said many times the distribution of PSOs was up to Mr Lay and having two on every station was the government's expectation.

But Transport Minister Terry Mulder was adamant there would definitely be two PSOs at every station as that was the government's policy.

"Two PSOs, every station, six o'clock (until) last train at night, seven days a week, metropolitan stations and major regional stations," he told reporters.

"That is our policy commitment."

He said PSOs would not be involved in checking tickets following revelations in an auditor-general's report that Victorians will be slugged more than $350 million over four years to cover a shortfall in forecast revenue for the operators of Melbourne's public transport system

Victoria's metropolitan and country firefighting services are in the gun for sizeable budget cuts as part of a Treasury review of government agencies.

United Firefighters Union National Secretary Peter Marshall said the union has received documents showing

the Country Fire Authority (CFA) will lose $41 million in the first year the proposed cuts take place, with more to follow in later years.

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) would lose $25 million in the first year of the cuts

, Mr Marshall said.

State Minister for Emergency Service

Peter Ryan confirmed this evening the cuts would be in the magnitude the union has put forward

but strongly insisted they would not impact frontline fire fighting services.

The union also said that

a Department of Treasury and Finance review in February/March this year looked at saving money by having fewer firefighters on duty for each shift

and at night.

Treasury also analysed past callout rates to predict future emergencies to assess staff numbers, the union said.

The union claimed

it was now unlikely that CFA regional commander positions — put in place following recommendations by the Royal Commission into the Black Saturday bushfires — would continue to be funded past 2014

under the proposed budget wind-back.

The union also says the role of the state's Fire Services Commissioner will be expanded to cover the State Emergency Service under the new title of Emergency Management Commissioner.

Mr Marshall accused the State Government of being "totally and utterly disrespectful" to the 177 people who lost their lives in the Black Saturday bushfires.

Mr Marshall told The Age

the Royal Commission had identified a need for more firefighters

, claiming he had documents showing the Government was using the "cover of darkness" to withdraw funding.

he said.

Mr Marshall said that if the reforms and budget cuts went ahead fire services in Victoria could take decades to recover, if at all.

"As we are experiencing enormous population growth, climate change, the increased complexity and diversity of fires as well as megafires, you have a government off on a frolic removing crucial funding. he said.