Forest carnage at nine cents a metre

by Peter Mac

A leaked letter from a Victorian Government department has revealed that 
native forest timber is being sold for woodchipping by the Kennett 
Government for as little as nine cents per cubic metre.

Referring to the latest report, Democrats Senator Lyn Allison said that the 
rate charged for native forest timber in Victoria "... represents a massive 
subsidy from the Victorian taxpayers, who are literally paying to have 
their forests destroyed."

The letter, from Victoria's Department of Natural Resources and Environment 
to the Newmerella Logging Company in Gippsland, has offered the company a 
logging rate of between nine cents and $1.38 per cubic metre. The rate for 
plantation timber, in comparison, is between $8 and $10.

An earlier report showed that by the mid-1990s Victorian taxpayers had paid 
about $90 million in costs associated with the logging of native forest 
timber, but had received only $40 million in return.

Senator Allison has accused the Kennett Government of favouring the native 
forest timber industry, in order to destroy the plantation industry.

She has also suggested that the objective of the Kennett Government is the 
destruction of the most precious areas of Victoria's native forest in order 
to prevent them being nominated for a World Heritage listing.

World Heritage status for the native forests would oblige governments at 
all levels to adopt and implement strategies for the conservation of the 
forests, rather than their progressive destruction as a marketable 
commodity.

The latest revelation comes in the wake of the potentially disastrous 
Forests Agreement entered into by the NSW Government, and the airing of a 
TV report which revealed massive waste of valuable timber in Tasmania's 
woodchip industry.

One irony of the Victorian situation is that there is currently no need for 
any such logging to be taking place. A world-wide glut of timber for 
pulping has caused the Newmerella mill to close down, unable to sell the 
logs it holds.

Rod Anderson, forest campaign co-ordinator for Environment Victoria, said 
that there is ample timber available from plantations, but the forest 
agreements have actually brought about a massive increase in the scale of 
native forest woodchip logging.

The Democrats also point out that small communities face a bleak future if 
they continue to be reliant on a shrinking native-forest industry and that 
it is "economic irrationalism" to continue the subsidies to the native 
forest sector. "Not only are we paying to get rid of our forests, even the 
industry admits most of the profits go overseas."

Preliminary Senate Committee hearings into The Regional Forests Agreement 
are under way and the legislation will be presented to the Australian 
Senate later this year.