BIAV President meets Boating Minister
by Boating Industry Association of Victoria 30 Aug 2023 05:02 PDT
This week BIAV President Scott O'Hare and CEO Steve Walker caught up with Minister for Recreation, (Boating) Sonya Kilkenny at her East Melbourne Office.
The meeting was an opportunity to recognise how far we have come in recent years, and to focus in on some key advocacy areas.
A glance at the Better Boating Victoria website will reveal a power of work that is going on in Victoria to improve things for boaters. Over 20 current boat ramp projects, as just one great example. This is all off the back of there being a Boating Minister, the formation of Better Boating Victoria, the setting up of the Better Boating Fund ($35MIL p.a), BBV's Recreational Boating Strategy, and the Katherine Grech driven annual plan of infrastructure and related projects. This is all great news, straight from the BIAV advocacy wish list, over recent years.
The Minister this week was very receptive to the BIAV current advocacy aspirations. This included:
- A major focus on industry challenges in the skills and resourcing areas, and the development of our Boating Careers platform.
- Continuing government support for our premier boating and educational event, the Melbourne Boat Show was covered, as was the BIAV aspiration to see more women coming through into leadership and other industry roles. A master-planning concept for Lake Eildon and recreational boating was also covered.
- This will look at the potential for additional licences, a dedicated tourism authority, grey-water solutions, infrastructure improvements, and more.
- A continuing focus on boater needs, and in-particular infrastructure spending where it is most needed to boost access to the water, is ever-present in these meetings and this was again the case. Victoria's 200k strong fleet is 95% trailer, boat ramp, parking, and weather protection reliant and we are sure the Minister and team are highly alert and responsive to this.