Portfolio — 15 August 2026

The Member for Gippsland South, Mr O'Brien, shaped his Assembly contributions in this window around two distinct but connected concerns: CFA resourcing failures in his district, and the integrity of outdoor recreation legislation as it moved from the Council to the Assembly floor.

On emergency services, Mr O'Brien moved to condemn the Member for Bendigo East over inadequate CFA resourcing, citing findings from the Coalition's Fresh Start tour and pointing specifically to stations including Axe Creek as evidence of the government's failure to deliver on regional fire services [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s005].

The more substantial body of Mr O'Brien's Assembly speech engaged with amendments to an outdoor recreation bill, championed by the Nationals Shadow Minister for Public Land Management and Shadow Minister for Outdoor Recreation, Ms Melina Bath. The amendments he endorsed rename Outdoor Recreation Victoria to Fishing, Hunting and Outdoor Victoria, broaden the definition of outdoor recreation to encompass both motorised and non-motorised activities, and consolidate the functions of the Game Management Authority and the Victorian Fisheries Authority into a single governance framework [TA-260813-vichns-ff06af361824:s047].

Mr O'Brien argued these changes more honestly reflect the activities — fishing and hunting in particular — that regional communities depend on and that any credible outdoor recreation framework must recognise.

A procedural concern ran through his contribution: the amendments had cleared the Council before the winter break but took six sitting days to reach the Assembly floor. Mr O'Brien used this delay to raise a broader question about whether a change of Premier had cooled the government's commitment to outdoor recreation policy, including duck season [TA-260813-vichns-ff06af361824:s046].

The framing positioned the lag not as scheduling but as a signal of policy drift.

Mr O'Brien also backed amendments expanding the evidentiary basis for outdoor recreation decisions to include scientific research, regional data, stakeholder knowledge, and on-ground evidence — explicitly contrasting this with decision-making confined to bureaucrats. Further amendments he highlighted cover commercial fishing sustainability, aquaculture recognition, authorised officer sufficiency in the fisheries sector, and the creation of a land and aquatic access panel drawn from representative bodies rather than appointed at ministerial discretion.

Across both the CFA motion and the outdoor recreation bill, Mr O'Brien's contributions consistently framed the government as under-resourced and insufficiently accountable to regional users and communities — a posture that connects emergency services to conservation and recreation policy under a single district-interest argument.