corvus wrote:G'day Specs,
Thats par for the course up there now and the reason the Overland has been regulated ,the up side is that Parks made a bucket load of mony that will be used to upgrade the walking tracks etc
OK I was saving my 200th post for a significant gallery post, but couldn't help myself on this one.
When was the last time you were asked to provide or show your parks pass?I have never been asked about my parks pass, though I have seen plenty of rangers.
Do they have the legal right to fine you? Last I heard, the only prosecuting they do was issue notices to vehicles in the Cradle Mtn car park and one other popular one, forget whether it was Freycinet or St Clair, but that they cannot enforce the fine (I hope this is wrong, or I hope steps are being taken to resolve that situation).
What is the penalty for not showing your parks pass?There are signs in the Lake St Clair carpark that say Show your parks pass (or risk a $20 fine).
Isn't it more expensive to buy a day pass?
http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/natparks/current_fees.htmlCurrent day car pass is $22.
So why bother with a pass?
Particularly when you are going to leave the state and not worry about paying IF you do get fined anyway...
It concerns me that many of these visitors would not have bothered with passes anyway...
And of bigger concern is that apart from a few signs, there is no active examination of parks passes.
It seems more like an honesty system.
I for one buy the two year pass and have done for a number of bi-years.
Though I am also in the belief that Tasmanian residents should be allowed to play in their own backyard without having to pay...
The money to pay Parks for what they do comes from Tasmanian taxes. What governments call
consolidated revenue. This is supplemented by the raising of revenue by the good folk that pay their parks memberships, as well as the more recent overland charge.
So as we the Tasmanian public are paying our taxes, we are already contributing to Parks through normal funding.
We are still required to pay for parks access. It's a way governments add to their
consolidated revenue...
(off topic rant - did you know that less than 10 percent of revenue raised by speed cameras actually went back into Roads? If they spent 100% of speed camera revenue on the roads, how good do you think they would be? And how much less road trauma would there be because of better roads? Instead, they stick their hand out to the Federal government all the time saying "This is a Black Spot, we need to fix it", and expect funding. I know it's a balancing act and the funds they currently have are allocated. Perhaps they should balance things differently, maybe starting at their hip pockets...)
Wouldn't it be a great "get fit" campaign by a Government if they were to give out to every Tasmanian household, a family parks pass each year with the Rates or something... By laws for landlords to hand on for rental properties etc. Then every Tasmanian would have more incentive to use these fantastic parks without feeling like we are being ripped off by governments every way they can. How much better off would state revenue be if they had to spend less on health because Tasmanians are getting out there enjoying the outdoors and getting fit and healthy because they can, without having to PAY to do so...
(Yes there is a beach you can go to or a state reserve that is not a national park, but that's not my point, my point is about getting the funding for Parks that they deserve / need).
Apparently they'd seen 1800 people go in that day, and the day wasn't even half over.
Assuming most people would start off in the morning, say 2500 for the day.
At $11 per head for a per-person day pass, that's $27,500.
OK Now summer is about 90 days long so assuming you had a particularly busy day and the typical amount is 2000 people.
That's 1.98 million for the 3 months of summer just in day visitors to one park.
Have you ever seen how busy Freycinet gets?
But some of these visitors would be in the state for more than a day, so they would visit the parks on different days, needing a holiday pass. 8 weeks. $28 per person.
2000 of them in a day and you've got over $5 million in 3 months.
Car passes would bump it up more, but then you get more people in a car so this will do as a guesstimate.
Somehow, just
somehow, I think Parks is missing out on a bit of potential revenue there...
Referring to my point about speed cameras and consolidated revenue, I wonder whether there is any check done to see that all funds raised by parks passes etc is actually put into parks?
Or whether the whole Parks department costs X to run, which normally comes from
consolidated revenue as it did before the pass system was introduced, and if the pass system only realises a fraction of X, then a government can say they put all of the parks pass funds into Parks department (but top it up with LESS
consolidated revenue)?
Like, if Parks Tas had a budget of $20 million per annum, and typically the fees system produces a return of $15 mil, then a government would come up with the extra 5 mil, but if one year the pass system realised $19 mil, a government would only contribute $1 mil and still say that all the money from passes goes back into parks??
Maybe I'm just suspicious.
Maybe I should join politics and fix some things.
Maybe I'll just rant here for a while and feel better for it.
I have possibly breached on a rule here -
Political content is not permitted, either for or against any particular issue, party, person or organisation.
My point is not directed against the government in particular, my point when referring to A government - any government - is more about funding for Parks and the accountability of those funds.
How accurate my comments are I do not know, perhaps I never will.
I wanted to make my point clear so this conversation does not go off on a "government bashing" tangent.
thanks to increased cash input from tourists to Cradle , Kithchen Hut surrounds no longer have a strong smell of ordure nor does it have toilet paper flowers every 3 feet . 
