Speech

March 8, 2022

Tania MAXWELL (Northern Victoria) (14:22):

I rise to speak on the Alpine Resorts Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, which will abolish the existing alpine resort management boards in Victoria and establish a single entity, known as Alpine Resorts Victoria.

I would like to start by acknowledging the gruelling past few years endured by the alpine resort operators and the surrounding communities that rely on alpine tourism. The devastating bushfires of the summer of 2019–20 and subsequent smoke inundation led to the evacuation of many areas and completely wrote off the summer tourist season as well. Then COVID hit and wiped out their winter.

All up, around 90 per cent of tourist visitations were lost during 2020. The alpine resorts—the hundreds of small business operators on our mountains and the surrounding towns who depend heavily on ski tourism—lost somewhere in the vicinity of $900 million in economic activity. Some businesses were open for only four days in 2020 due to the pandemic restrictions. Many were ineligible for much financial support and are still suffering and trying to rebuild their businesses. There are chronic affordable housing and staffing shortages across regional Victoria, but in particular in those towns that need a real uplift in workforce during peak seasons.

I raised in Parliament last year an insurance crisis which has developed within the sector, with premiums increasing 400 per cent in some instances. A market failure is required in order for the government to intervene; however, that would necessitate the financial collapse of a significant alpine operator. The government’s response to my question was that an intervention in the insurance market would be premature before Alpine Resorts Victoria, established in this bill, has considered the long-term financial sustainability of the region. I certainly hope addressing this issue is a high priority of this new entity.

I would like to thank those in the sector who have engaged with me on this bill and also thank Minister (Lily) D’Ambrosio and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for meeting with me to discuss the bill and some of the issues that were raised by the sector during my consultation. We discussed the importance of private sector investment in our alpine regions and some of the challenges when investing in ventures on public lands.

The government has conveyed a commitment to local engagement, to understanding the unique characteristics of each resort and to the need to tailor solutions that reflect their differences. I accept that funding decisions are made from one budget to the next but hope this new governance will focus on ensuring our alpine resorts are put on a sustainable footing.

I hope, too, that our alpine resorts are supported to not only bounce back from the difficulties of the past few years but to explore the potential that strategic investment could deliver for this industry. Solid work has been done on this in the past by the existing boards and tourism bodies and there are investment opportunities identified that could double the number of visitors each year and double the contribution of alpine tourism to Victoria’s economy.

Emergency management across the resorts will continue to be very important, and Alpine Resorts Victoria will be responsible for developing a single emergency management plan that, with local components, applies across the six resorts. I have conveyed to the government concerns from the sector around asset preservation, funding models for capital investment and helping the resorts to diversify and grow their offerings across other seasons. There is usually a 17-week window for alpine businesses to make 90 per cent of their income, hence why it is so expensive to go skiing.

We want the ski season to remain strong, but developing those other seasonal offerings would help sustain the resorts and stabilise employment. Much of the detail of those matters is not covered in this bill, which is about transitioning to the new entity, but they will be extremely important matters for Alpine Resorts Victoria to strategically manage.

While there is not too much that is controversial about this bill, it is certainly an important piece of legislation because it will shape the destiny of our alpine resorts, and that is extremely important to the Victorian economy and to my electorate of Northern Victoria.

We look forward to seeing how this unfolds and I will continue supporting the alpine operators and proud small businesses in my electorate on any concerns they have in the process. I commend this bill to the house.