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.

Australia’s ‘dirtiest’ power station considers ‘clean energy’ biomass burning option

With recent changes to the renewable energy target, the burning of native forest wood waste can once again earn credits for generating clean energy, but there’s dispute about whether burning native forest waste for energy is ‘carbon neutral’. Background Briefing reports. The owners of one of Australia’s oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power stations‚ÄîHazelwood in Victoria’s …

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Native forests can help hit emissions targets – if we leave them alone

The debate over native forest logging has been sparked once again, partly by the government’s successful push for wood burning to be included in the revamped Renewable Energy Target. However, the disagreement over the best way to manage Australia’s 9.4 million hectares of public native forest is thrown into sharp relief by analysis showing that …

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Coalition’s secret deal to protect AP

A secret deal by the former State Government to supply Australian Paper with timber at a discounted fixed price has shed further light on the financial vulnerability of the Maryvale Mill. A Department of Treasury briefing, seen by The Express as supplied by The Age, reveals Maryvale Mill owner Australian Paper had failed to hand over …

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Victorian native forest timber offered at discount price to Japanese mill

Victoria’s native timber was offered to a Japanese-owned paper mill at a discounted fixed price as part of a secret government deal to end a protracted multimillion-dollar dispute over unpaid debts. A Department of Treasury briefing obtained by Fairfax Media reveals Gippsland-based Australian Paper – the state’s largest wood customer – failed to hand over $10 million that VicForests …

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Victorian timber bound for China under secret Andrews Government rescue plan

Victoria’s low grade native timber could soon be packed into shipping containers bound for China and other cut-price countries for processing under a plan to help ailing state timber company VicForests. In response, a rule requiring local processing before export has now been relaxed in a bid to open up new markets for the struggling state-owned …

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Burning ambition: Why the forestry industry needs the RET

On Wednesday, shadow Environment Minister Mark Butler moved an amendment to the RET legislation on behalf of the Labor opposition, that would disqualify native forest biomass as an eligible fuel source for renewable energy credits in the legislation itself. The fate of the amendment will be decided on the cross bench in the Senate on …

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VicForests plans EG forests as industrial furnace fuel

A leaked three-year business plan of VicForests reveals multi-million dollar taxpayer losses among other startling revelations. East Gippsland is mentioned as the most uneconomic region having made losses of $5.5 million p.a. for years. This region supports the most exquisite and wildlife rich forests in SE Australia – that have been clearfelled to sell as …

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VicForests must go

Tax-payer sponsored environmental demolition must end and VicForests must be relegated to history, is the message Environment East Gippsland is sending to the Victorian Government after the exposé that $5.5 million “Community Service Obligation” is funding public forest destruction annually in the region. “Environment groups are feeling vindicated across the state after decades of highlighting …

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Logging in East Gippsland losing up to $5.5 million a year

Logging in East Gippsland is not commercially viable and cutting down native forests across the region is racking up losses of up to $5.5 million a year, internal government documents reveal. A leaked briefing by Victoria’s Department of Treasury and Finance to the former Napthine government says East Gippsland logging is being cross-subsidised by profitable harvesting in the state’s Central Highlands. The Highlands logging has come …

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