All eight councillors of the Shire of Yarra Ranges voted in early December to oppose any further logging of their water catchments. They will ask our state’s Water Minister, Gavin Jennings, to stop VicForests plans to clearfell eleven logging coupes in the Armstrong and Cement Creek catchments. That area is the stronghold of the loggers …
The headline in the Sunday Age in early December 2007 was ‘How to turn $99 million worth of trees into a $17,000 loss’. VicForests was exposed as incompetent economic managers of our public forests. Even with a state government gift of tens of millions of dollars to get it set up, it’s still not profitable …
The umbrella group that lobbies on behalf of all Australian (and overseas) logging interests were officially invited along by Kevin Rudd to be part of the Australian delegation to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Bali in December. We hear that the CFMEU was there as well. The National Association of Forest Industries’ …
The logging industry is desperately grabbing for a lifeline as they slowly sink on the global wood market The price of the Aussie dollar and a global glut of plantation woodchips are both undermining the profits of Australia’s native forest logging industry. Most buyers want some sort of eco-certification to keep their customers assured. So …
The new Victorian Association of Forest Industries’ head is Philip Dalidakis. He’s not a Trish Caswell style environmentalist turned logging lobbyist, but was senior advisor to State Minister for Major Projects, Industry and Trade, Theo Theophanos, until taking this position in November. Interesting to keep in mind that Theophanos is a huge fan of burning …
David Pollard, VicForests CEO, was the Commissioner of State Revenue, from 1997 until 2002. Any wonder that he was very defensive when questioned on radio in early December about the loss he’d made for Victorian’s. The information coming out of the logging coupes was that contractors are being directed to smash up good quality salvaged …
Forestry NSW is looking at how to counteract the effects of ‘red oxide’ in wood, just in case it’s ever injected into woodchip trees. Apparently it renders wood useless for chipping and paper-making. Who would do such a silly thing?
Mr Brumby has dusted down the old Industry Transition Taskforce to go about chatting with the logging industry about how to protect 41,000ha (as promised last State election) while not reducing the net log resource or losing any jobs in East Gippsland. Hmmm. (they don’t want to talk to environmentalists by the way) The force …
Black Forest Timbers, the large mill out at Woodend, announced its final closure in the middle of the Federal election campaign in October. This timing made many people suspicious. As one friend put it – “They have been the Zen masters of attracting millions of dollars in public money and never showing anything for it.” …
Kevin Rudd is parroting John Howard on every important issue, including forest destruction. Howard slams the unions whenever he can and Rudd kicks unionists out of the Labor party for swearing. And when it comes to the forestry arm of the CFMEU, these unionists are left alone by both sides of politics. The pro-mill, anti-forests …
