Reopening the 63 km rail line from Sale to Bairnsdale for passengers has been a political promise for years – and it’s finally happening. But the down side is that 44,000 Redgum sleepers are to be used for the upgrade. The patronage on the current bus service is very low so the passenger line might …
Investigations by Lawyers For Forests (LFF), have shown that the Code of Forest Practices is vague, unenforceable and needs reform. Recently the Bracks government put the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in charge of overseeing auditing of the Code, instead of government foresters. This is still a worry. For example, the EPA needs funding and powers …
At the log truck blockade in Melbourne earlier this year, our independent MP, Craig Ingram, made mention of the vast area of good Alpine Ash locked up in the Snowy National Park and how it could have kept the logging industry afloat a while longer. More recently he gained front page attention in the local …
In late August, Minister in charge of logging, Sherryl Garbutt, announced the intention to offer Victorias 58 sawmill owners money in return for their promised allocation of logs (didnt we hear this same thing six months ago?). However, the offer ignores the woodchip licences. The government is still operating under the illusion that chips are …
Up until March 14th, the RFAs were merely an agreement, not legally binding documents. Labor and Liberals worked like best mates to railroad this legislation through in an early morning Canberra sitting. Its passage was met by a huge cheer from both parties. It successfully allows the Feds to wash their hands of any responsibility …
Will you still love me tomorrow? In the morning after the $300M Regional Forest Agreements party, Australia’s woodchippers answer with a resounding “no”. Never a generous suitor, the woodchipping industry has now all but deserted Australia’s political parties. The Forest Products Association (FPA) has even dumped Fred Nile! With twenty years of woodchipping safely in …
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) set up a sham called the RFA Reference Groups. These groups were to help implement those bedraggled embarrassments concocted as Regional Forest Agreements. There were three community groups set up; in the Otways, East Gippsland and the Wombat forest. Jill Redwood (me) from EEG nominated for and …
Just in the last 6-8 months the logging industry has received $800,000, $42.6 million, another $80 million and most recently $9 million has been given over to tart up logging towns that might lose out due to the cut-backs. Before Christmas, Daishowa announced they would be more fussy about the quality of wood theyd take …
No one could have made a bigger mess of the problem than has just been announced. Small voluntary cut back over umpteen years, introduce cable logging in steep old growth forests, hand out another huge swag of subsidies to a dying industry, allow unlimited woodchipping to continue, consider large consumers of wood like charcoal plants …
The figures are as flawed as they have been for the past 30 years and this ‘solution’ is only pushing the problem further down the track. In not too many years, the government might be forced to admit to another stuff-up – too late. In the meantime, they’ll be going hammer and tong as ever …
