Today I attended a weeds forum hosted by the State Opposition Upper House member Edward O'Donohue and Shadow Minister for the Environment & Climate Change David Davis at Emerald Lake Park. In attendance also was my colleague Darcy Duggan and other environmental groups leaders.

The discussion was full and frank. Lack of adequate resources to tackle what is an emerging weed crisis was raised by most participants as a key barrier to seeing any progress with the issue.

We also discussed the range of actions that would need to be taken to address the issue and this included everything from community education, better enforcement, listing of environmental weeds as noxious species, co-ordination between all the different types of land managers, clarity over who is responsible for what, investment beyond volunteer grant programs, better support for volunteers (who do the brunt of the work), and last but from far the least a recognition that this needs a strategic approach or we will simply be managing a weed problem forever rather than going some way to resolving it.

I look forward to reviewing the policy position that the Liberal Party develops as a result of this and other community forums in the lead up to the next state election in 2010.