Member for Western Victoria Jaala Pulford announced Thursday that Labor would make sweeping changes to current regulations, opening up new fishing spots, rehabilitating fish habitat, and establishing a boating authority.

Under the changes, fish stocking would grow to 10 million fish per year by 2022 and anglers would have access to crown land river frontages covered by grazing licences, Ms Pulford said.

“We’re going to change the laws to ensure that campers and fishers have access to those river fronts in areas where grazing’s occurring – we think they can happily co-exist,” she said.

“It’s fixing an access denied problem.”

There was news for boaters too. 

“We’re going to abolish the launching fees and the parking fees,” Ms Pulford said.

Additional ramp infrastructure would also be constructed, and Labor would establish a boating infrastructure authority.

“We’re not all that mad about the Coalition’s idea of using the ports authority to do it. We’re not convinced that’s the right fit,” Ms Pulford said.

“We want to work with our boating community and with our fishing community on what it is that everybody needs, because it differs a lot from every area.

“We’ll build an authority to purpose around that because at the moment, depending on where you are, the ramps might be managed by the local council, might be managed by any one of a handful of state government authorities … and that’s why you’ve got real inconsistencies with and funding.”

Trevor Holmes from Victoria Inland Charters in Lake Toolondo and Geoff Cramer of Victorian Recreational Fish both welcomed the news. 

“I think with the new initiatives that are being announced, the social and economic values throughout the region are going to benefit everyone across the board who fishes,” Mr Holmes said.

“The announcement of 10 million fish in one year is absolutely phenomenal because in the past (Labor) have only been able to produce about three. They set a goal for five and they got to six this year.”

Changes to the boating regulations would also benefit recreational anglers and other water users, Mr Cramer said.

“We don’t see the hassle of it around here but in the bigger centres when the fish are on, some people queue for two or three hours and some of them end up going home,” he said.

“All of the money that comes in from licences and registrations, which is about $30 million a year, was supposed to go back in but governments have used the money for other things.

“If we have an independent authority for boating infrastructure, I reckon it will work really well.”

Ms Pulford made one last announcement on Thursday.

“We thought that, given anglers are so mad for their pastime, there might be some demand for fishing number plates. We threw that in for fun,” she said.

Popular fishing areas in the region include Green Hill Lake Reserve, Lake Fyans, Lake Wartook, Lake Lonsdale, Lake Bellfield, Rocklands, the Wimmera River, Toolondo