A thousand backward steps under Baillieu

Going Backwards Under Baillieu. Photograph: The Wilderness Society

Around a thousand Victorians marched backwards outside of State Parliament on Sunday, demonstrating the direction Premier Baillieu is taking Victoria on the environment.

In his first year as Premier, Ted Baillieu has shown scant regard for Victoria's precious natural environment. It seems he is more interested in playing political party games than governing for the people of Victoria who care deeply about the environment.

As leader of the then Liberal opposition, Ted Baillieu came to the 2010 election without an election policy for protecting Victoria's environment. One year on from this date, he has effectively taken Victorian back decades on environmental policy. The Baillieu government has:

• Put cattle back into the Alpine National Park
• Logged habitat of the endangered species at Sylvia Creek in Victoria's Central Highlands
• Proposed to carve up Melbourne's Green Wedges
• Fast-tracked the industrial development of Western Port Bay
• Ignored carbon emissions targets and approved new coal fired powerstations
• Blocked the development of new windfarms
• Proposed to exempt logging from Victoria's endangered species laws

The thousand strong protest walked backwards from Parliament House to Treasury Gardens in a public display of peaceful protest against Baillieu's backwards steps.

We will continue to campaign to ensure that Ted Baillieu starts acting like a Premier and stands up for Victoria's precious wildlife.

For more photographs please visit our flickr page.

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