The economy’s going to grow at 3 per cent this year and the Budget surplus is to grow over time. It’s all grow, grow, grow, even in these straitened times. There’s a pie chart in the Federal Budget overview that shows “where taxpayer money is spent”. A big slice of this luscious pie goes to …
The formal status of Australia’s Koalas was delivered on 30th April by Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke. The long-awaited for declaration announced that Queensland, NSW and the ACT will have their koala’s listed as vulnerable under the national environment protection law. But koalas in South Australia and Victoria are excluded. However, if these Koalas, with …
The government’s announcement that it will spend $1.8M to survey for endangered wildlife in Eastern Victoria is like throwing a teaspoon of sugar into a cauldron of bitter swill. Environment East Gippsland says that this shines the spotlight on the environmental hypocrisy of the Baillieu government. “The government might be offering $1.8M to look for …
MyEnvironment is challenging the Supreme Court’s recent decision that VicForests’ planned logging in the endangered Leadbeater’s Possum areas in the Central Highlands was legal. It has lodged an appeal in the Victorian Court of Appeal where three Judges will review the decision. In March, the Supreme Court found against MyEnvironment, saying that VicForests’ logging was …
Illegal logging of the world’s forests is going on at a rate of 30 football fields a second. It enriches criminal gangs and corporations. People speaking out against it have been gunned down. Its profits and power rivals the illegal drug trade. Of the 15 top timber-producing nations, two-thirds lose over half of their timber …
This is the third report in a series, Monitoring Victoria’s Environmental Laws, to be published by the EDO. It investigates how effectively the Department of Sustainability and Environment is enforcing the Flora & Fauna Guarantee Act (FFG Act) and the Wildlife Act. It shows that the FFG Act remains very poorly implemented, with many of …
Tony Windsor has publicly stated he won’t be voting for the Oakeshott motion to burn forests for power – thanks to all of you who emailed and called as per our last ‘call for action’. BUT … …as a result of a peculiarity in the way Government works, the motion to call native forest furnace …
Japanese power stations are burning NSW forests to create energy. The Japanese Government is forcing their coal-fired power stations to replace 10-20 per cent of coal supply with “biomass”. They’re also burning the ‘waste; from the tsunami damage. Boral Timber executive general manager Bryan Tisher said Boral had sold a mix of plantation and native …
The Gunns mill at Heyfield in Gippsland was sold to a consortium of new owners recently. It is called ASH (Australian Sustainable Hardwoods) and remains Australia’s largest hardwood timber mill. In mid-July it was complaining that it can’t gain financial credits to burn its ‘waste’ to generate ‘renewable’ electricity profitably, thanks to the Greens. ASH’s …
