The logging industry has been on massive welfare payments for years, despite it claiming it is profitable. Our taxes pay to have our forests destroyed.
The industry is a dead loss in many ways.

VICFORESTS IS BANKRUPT

VicForests has broken a new record – in multi-million-dollar losses. A $54 million loss was declared in its annual report tabled on 20th December 2022. Victoria has an insolvent state owned business losing $54 million of tax-payer dollars in 2021-22 – on top of almost 2 decades of annual losses, proven cases of illegal logging …

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VicForests: What a scam!

An investigative journalist working with Micheal West has exposed a neat little summary of figures in this story to show that VicForests is one of the state’s biggest welfare recipients, and doesn’t even need to meet any mutual obligations. Tasha May | Jun 9, 2021 | Michaelwest.com.au The trees were cut down, the profits of …

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Leaving only the ASH

The Andrews Government is torn between helping a group of workers in a small country town fighting for their jobs and caving in to a group of Melbourne investors happy for taxpayers to relieve them of their responsibilities, writes Michael Spencer. The problem for the Andrews Government is that if it caves in to pressure …

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Heyfield timber mill: Victorian Government completes purchase

UPDATE: THE Victorian Government will not say how much it has spent to buy the Heyfield timber mill. A spokesman for the Government said the figure was confidential, but The Weekly Times understands the business was independently valued at close to $40 million. Employment Minister Wade Noonan will be responsible for the timber mill, which …

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Regional Forest Agreements fail to meet their aims

Species declines and unsustainable forestry evident under RFAs Pr. David Lindenmayer, ANU; Ann Jelinek, Nature Focus Victoria; Oisin Sweeney, National Parks Association of NSW   The 20-year Regional Forest Agreements between State and Commonwealth governments are due for renewal. They aim to allow native forest harvesting while providing for conservation and future industry. RFA legislative …

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Malcolm Turnbull caves in to Tasmanian loggers

Last weekend, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull flew to Launceston for the Tasmanian Liberals’ yearly conference. Accompanied by Premier Will Hodgman, Turnbull’s first stop was the timber yard of logging company Neville-Smith Forest Products, once a part of the now-fallen Gunns logging empire. Twenty years after John Howard signed the first Regional Forest Agreement with Tasmania, …

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Victorian government’s timber mill bailout has bad whiff of pork

The Victorian government’s decision to appropriate a large undisclosed sum of taxpayers’ money to buy a struggling timber mill nobody else wanted to acquire appears more driven by dubious politics than by rigorous public policy. The government has not revealed how much it has agreed to pay Australian Sustainable Hardwood for the mill in Heyfield, …

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