It certainly gives me a great deal of pleasure this afternoon to stand in this place and join my colleagues to speak on the Marine Safety Amendment (Better Boating Fund) Bill 2020. Now, as I have been sitting here today, I have had to listen to those opposite continue to carry on with another tragic boohoo moment about Victorians. Today it is about the boating community, and I cannot help but think I would never want to be sitting in a dinghy or a rickety old tinnie with that lot sitting opposite. Their lacklustre attempt at trying to scare Victorians into believing that somehow we have broken an election promise is just about as unbelievable as the cheap Halloween decorations my kids stuck up in the front yard yesterday. Not one cent from licences and fees was put directly back into boating when the coalition was in government. You had every opportunity to establish a dedicated fund, but you failed to do that.

Let me say in very plain terms: this bill is going to establish the Better Boating Fund, and the Treasurer himself will transfer the equivalent of all revenue collected from marine licensing and vessel registration fees into this fund. This money will then be spent on agreed priorities. Now, those opposite standing to talk on this bill trying to tell us that our government is not delivering on its election commitment is just more hogwash. What a fantasy land those opposite continue to live in. Now, I do not want to stand here and talk about negative things. We do not do that on this side of the house. I am going to turn my attention to something that I know that everyone in this chamber will agree with, and that is our beautiful state of Victoria. We are a state of wonderful vistas and gorgeous sites, and dare I say it, we were the state that created the first ever hashtag of ‘wanderlust’.

I am pretty proud to admit that when it comes to holiday seasons Barwon Heads is a favourite spot for me and my family. This afternoon we have heard a lot about the beaches and the bays and the rivers of those south-eastern suburbs, but now that the member for St Albans has entered the chamber we can talk about the western suburbs—this side of the bridge. Barwon Heads is a favourite spot for my family and me, and we have got great memories of pitching a tent there with hundreds of other families from right across Victoria, the Barwon Heads Caravan Park sitting there on the glorious river. In fact I will take this opportunity today to confess that I never thought I would be smiling and reflecting upon those camping memories, because when I was a kid we never had the opportunity to go camping on holidays. My father being a milkman, school holidays and public holidays were the busiest times of the year for him and continue to be. I am sure I am not like a lot of other mums out there when I say it took me quite a bit of time to get used to roughing it with two kids in a tent in the throes of toilet training. Yes, yes—fond memories indeed of Barwon Heads. It is in the summer—and I know all Victorians are looking forward to this summer like no other—that we see the boats out en masse in the ocean and fishing in the bays.

Now, I grew up in Kingscliff in northern New South Wales, a very sleepy little village and certainly a far cry from the tourist destination that it is now. Just like other coastal towns in the regions, part of its appeal is for holidaying away from the big cities and getting away from suburbia and out onto the open water. In the summer city dwellers would drive up in their caravans with their boats for some quiet fishing or to their holiday homes. In many ways the sandy coastlines of Kingscliff are not too different from the beautiful coastal towns on the Bellarine or in Gippsland, and in fact one of the other reasons I particularly love pitching the tent down there in Barwon Heads is that I am reminded of one of my favourite Aussie TV shows, the much-loved SeaChange. Indeed Pearl Bay was very similar to the Kingscliff I grew up in: the beaches, the townsfolk, very much the corrupt councillors and of course—how can we forget—those greedy developers wanting to overdevelop the coastline at any cost.

Ms Spence: Was there a Diver Dan?

Ms CONNOLLY: How can we forget Diver Dan—or Max?

We know how important fishing and boating are to so many Victorians. Over 400 000 Victorians across the state hold a marine licence, and I am very pleased to say around 4000 to 6000 of those are actually residents of Wyndham. Now, the revenue from these licences is equal to approximately $31 million a year. Not only this, but the benefit of recreational boating to the economy is about $8 billion a year and creates over 22 000 jobs in Victoria. Now, whilst my electorate of Tarneit, we all know, is not a coastal electorate, we all still really enjoy the thrill of being out of the water. Fortunately for us there is a lovely strip of coast nearby, in Werribee South, and of course Werribee South is one of the 35 boat ramps that our government has removed fees from, saving boaters up to $315 a year. This was something our government promised at the last election—to make boating cheaper and more accessible for Victorians—and would you believe it, we did it.

As we begin to emerge from a lockdown and return to a more COVID-normal setting, I know many Victorians are going to be really eager to get back out on their boats and go fishing for a couple of hours. They have put in a monumental effort getting through this second wave of restrictions, because often being out on their boats is what makes them most happy—and I would not blame them for that, because, I mean let’s face it, there is something absolutely magical about being out there on the water, whether you are in a boat with a fishing rod in your hand or, like me, bobbing away in the local creek, in the waves, watching my kids, who are either throwing sand at each other or pretending to be mermaids and dolphins. But we are all drawn to the water in some way or another.

Now, a couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a local constituent, and I will change his name here today and call him John. He reached out to my office because, like so many Victorians, he was grappling with the impacts of this lockdown. His daughter lives interstate and his parents in regional Victoria, and for months he has been practically cut off from seeing his family. And as my parents still live in Kingscliff, where they would not even know there was a global pandemic, it is a feeling I know all too well. Among many things, John told me how much he missed going fishing as a pastime, when these activities were not permitted. As hard as it was, John knew he had to do the right thing—he had to do the right thing for our community—and because of the sacrifices of people like John we are now in a position to open up safely. If I was talking to John right now, I would be telling him, ‘I know these last couple of months have been a challenge, but because of the sacrifices that you and every other Victorian have made we have taken our first steps, and they are huge steps into our new COVID normal’. I would also say, ‘And mate, you can now get back out there and drop a line’.

These victories have only been possible because of Victoria’s collective effort to contain the virus. But just as we made good on our promise to scrap boating fees from public boat ramps, this bill is also going to make good on the promise we made to the boating community—the establishment of that Better Boating Fund. Now, our government got amongst the Victorian boating community, and we listened—we listened to what they had to say—and what we heard was that for all the money they paid in fees and licences, they were not getting bang for their buck. What they told us was the system needed to invest back in the facilities that they were using, and that is why our government has promised to implement the Better Boating Fund. That is exactly what we will do.

This fund will collect the proceeds from boat licence and registration fees and allocate them to improving facilities and safety for the boating community. These funds will be used to deliver on recreational boating priorities, including boat ramp upgrades, new facilities, maintenance, boating safety and boating education. This bill builds upon our government’s impressive record on delivering for Victorian boat users. With me now having adapted to camping, by the river in Barwon Heads, I might soon be ready to get out there on a boat and tackle my fear of seasickness, which is probably why I do not have an actual boating experience I can share in this place today and with my local community. But in all seriousness, we are a government that is not only delivering on an important election promise but in doing so we are actually going to make sure that the money paid by boat users goes back into their facilities, and they can get that bang for their buck that they talk so passionately about, because at the end of the day every single one of us deserves to feel that we get what we paid for. I commend the bill to the house.