THE first fault lines have emerged within Victoria's new Coalition government, with Liberal and National Party MPs publicly at odds over environmental policy.
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Barely two weeks since winning office, the government is divided over aspects of the plan to return cattle grazing to Victorian national parks.
The Coalition has promised to overturn Labor's ban on cattle grazing in alpine national parks in the belief that strategic grazing can reduce bushfire risk by reducing fuel loads.
But the Liberals and Nationals are at odds over whether cattle should be allowed back into the prized red gum forests on the banks of the Murray River at Barmah and Gunbower.
Cattle were banned from Barmah and Gunbower when the internationally recognised forests were declared national parks last year, but National Party MP Paul Weller said the new Coalition government would allow cattle back into the areas.
''That's right, it probably won't be this year because it will be too wet for too long … it will probably be toward the end of 2011,'' he said.
''The reason we put them in is for the management of the fuel loads for fire and the cattlemen actually care for the bush greater than anyone else.''
Mr Weller's electorate of Rodney contains both Barmah and Gunbower, and when asked if the Liberal ranks of the Coalition agreed with the plan to put cattle back into those forests, Mr Weller said: ''Yep, it's Coalition policy''.
''We are in Coalition and the Coalition opposed making the parks into national parks.''
But the Coalition's new Environment and Climate Change Minister, Liberal MP Ryan Smith, had a different view.
''There are no plans to reintroduce cattle grazing to Barmah and Gunbower forests,'' he said. ''We have a policy to reinstate high-country cattle grazing to reduce fire risk, which we are committed to and any decision we make will take into account any potential environmental impact.''
Opposition scrutiny of government spokesman Martin Pakula attacked the Coalition's divided stance.
''The cracks that the Coalition could hide in opposition can't be hidden in government. Decisions have to be made,'' he said. ''Has the Environment Minister been left out of the loop? Or will the National Party once again roll over to have its tummy scratched by its Liberal Party master?''
The cattle grazing policy is threatening to spark more than internal struggles for new Premier Ted Baillieu, with the federal government indicating last week that national heritage laws would give them the final say over any plan to return cattle to the Victorian alps.
