LOGGING ... a dead loss

The headline in the Sunday Age in early December 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 to cut down native forests.

A new era has begun. We have the combined trilogy of;
1) serious climate shift,
2) plantation wood in abundance and
3) a logging industry that continues to rely on public welfare to make a profit.

The annual report showed that an area the size of just under 5,000 football fields of native forests was clearfelled and sold off for woodchips and sawlogs last financial year. The tree trunks were sold for almost $100 million. VicForests was still unable to make ends meet, even with the $20 million start up money the government has been feeding them for the last three years and VicForests' refusal to pay all of its debts. This semi-corporatised arm of the government was to have been able to make a profit and achieve a decent return for the public, who own these forests.

So not only are we losing our critical carbon storage areas, our water makers, our purifiers, our soil stabilisers, our climate coolers and our biodiversity arks, the Bracks/ Brumby government is allowing all this to happen while also losing our money! In the last financial year, 1.6 million m3 of our carbon storage vessels were hacked from the land. Most of what Mr Bracks and Brumby allow VicForests to sell is pulpwood for making woodchips and paper. It goes for an average of $8.50 per m3. In comparison, plantation pulp sells for about $35 m3. Most plantations are owned by investment schemes but there's little chance they'll be getting much return for the wood if the government keeps squandering taxpayers' dollars to undercut them.

Once the tree trunks are put through the chipping blades, the wood can be sold for about $80 a tonne. After it's been pulped, it goes up to about $1,000 a tonne. So why does VicForests sell it for $8? VicForests claims Victorian native forest pulp is dirt cheap because it has to be trucked so far and we have poorer quality trees (yeah, sure).

Given that the carbon value of trees could be $90 a tonne, we'd all be better off leaving our forests undisturbed.

Two of the three big mills that buy the timber - PaperlinX in the Latrobe Valley (domestic paper makers) and the 100% Japanese-owned South East Fibre Exports (SEFE) at Eden - made a combined profit of $87 million last financial year. Midways, the other woodchip mill near Geelong which exports to Asian paper companies, takes endless trainloads from Gippsland's forests. They don't make their profits known.

Logging industry economist, Dr Judith Ajani, said these results show that VicForests just can't make ends meet. She said logging native forests has historically always been a financial loser.

Plantation logs supply about 3/4 of Victoria's wood needs and are superior in many ways. They are better quality. They are easier to grow, cut and cart to nearby mills. They don't destroy ancient forests, causing greenhouse problems or mass eradication of native animals.

Despite the loss, VicForests paid its shareholders, the public and the State Government a $2 million dividend. This was paid out of their "piggy bank' rather than profits (because they didn't make any).

The same thing happened last year, apparently. This is hardly an economically prudent way to run a business, and quite alarming considering the board members are such financial experts. If Brumby is an economic rationalist and if Treasury has any nous, the native forest logging industry and VicForests will be axed.

Jill / Sunday Age / ABC Gippsland 4.12.07

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RED ALERT!

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?

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VicForests - masters of scam

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 while laying waste to our forests.

The fact that contractors are being directed to smash up good quality salvaged ash sawlogs so they can be sold quickly as pulplogs was of course denied. He said that if that was happening they'd hear about it and their monitoring would pick it up. Well it's actually VicForests local staff that are directing loggers to smash the logs! Of course they won't see it!

Pollard also said they sell their logs cheaply because they are competing with a globally competitive market (ie. third world log prices) and that they are in competition with plantations. Plantations sell their logs for three times as much, so even if Pollard doubled the prices VicForests would still be1/3 as cheap as plantations.

He then told the audience that clearfelling native forests for woodchips is much more environmentally sound because there are no pesticides used. Then the absolute pearler was when he tried to sell the audience this one - that in a carbon constrained economy, logging forests is the best way to manage our carbon. He said that "we can't sit back and let late stage forests sit there and burn to the ground every 50 years". It's about science vs emotional green arguments, he said. If that's the best they can do they should sack their spin doctor.

The final porkie was in answer to a question regarding how much he'd made for VicForests in past years. After some mumbling and coaching from an advisor he quickly and unconvincingly said "$10 million". When this was checked, the $10 million was the profit made before the costs were taken out.

Jill

 

Election musings

It's not workers vs the elite anymore; it's environment vs business greed. What with temperatures rising, taps running dry, food becoming a valuable commodity - all coupled with peak oil - the economy, the environment and the voters are about to cop a serious body blow. It could be too late for changing governments' priorities via voter awareness, but if Rudd knows which side his bread is buttered, he won't kowtow to the coal and logging industries like Howard did.

With the collapse of global trade beginning and the US about to go into meltdown, it will be a rough round for Rudd to referee. Business will be screaming for more assistance and access to resources, while the voters and the environment will become even more poverty stricken from decades of neglect. On top of this, climate chaos will hit us like a steam train. So any government that allows greasy corporate donors to keep writing their policies behind the scenes, might be on the path to extinction.

Tackling these problems will mean depression-style frugality and belt tightening across the country. The ALP could go green or it could just pretend to. The Greens could be outpolling the LibNats in the next couple of elections. Some are saying the 2007 election was the start of the extinction of the Liberal Party.

Will Rudd cast off his conservative pro-pulpmill persona and begin to take real action now he's been elected? Or will he fill us all with spin? (Howard employed 627 spin doctors throughout his government). Concern for the planet's health hasn't translated into political pressure in the past, but now that the temperature is rising, self-interest is kicking in. We can hope that public awareness and politics start to take a different course. I think Bob Brown recently said that when the Environment Minister is held in higher regard than the Treasurer, we know they'll be taking the planet seriously.

Have a fun and relaxing holiday season everyone. Let's try to look forward to some peace and goodwill shown towards all living things in 2008 and beyond.

Jill

 

How we fared in the election

Gippsland saw the Greens increase their vote by just over 1% to 6.06%. Though in the end, National Party senator, Peter McGauran ("Chops") romped back in with hardly a chink in his support base (the Liberals never stand in Gippsland's Federal elections). In Victoria the Greens should be close to or just above 10% in the Senate and nationally the swing to the Greens will see a vote of about 9%. Their Senate vote will end up close to 1.2 million votes compared with 917,000 in the 2004 election.

Nationally, the Greens outpolled the Nationals in the Lower House. The Greens have also pushed the Nats out as Australia's third largest political party - by a country mile. The Nats only scored about 681,000 votes compared to the Greens 959,000 (with 1 or 2% of the vote still to count at the time of writing this). That's 5.5% compared to 7.8% for the Greens.

Depending on the final count, the Greens will go into the next Senate with between five and six seats - most likely five. In 1998 they had one seat, 2001 - two seats, and in 2004, four seats. They'll share the balance of power with five Senators.

New Federal Minsters of interest are Penny Wong for Climate Change and Water, Peter Garrett with Environment and Pulpmill Approvals. Tony Burke has Forestry, Fisheries and Agriculture. Between these three politicians, they should be able to save our greatest green carbon stores and start to move this country quick-smart into enviro-restoration mode. If Rudd has allowed the logging and fossil fuel industries to attend and again stymie the Bali round of climate negotiations (as Howard has in the past), then we know where we'll stand with "Kevin 07" (see).

The biggest worry though is Martin Ferguson. He's been appointed the new Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism. He is the politician who hates "greenies" with a passion. It's his whole motivation for being. He wants to burn 5 million tonnes of native forest a year and call it "renewable energy." If he does, he'll have a massive battle on his hands!

Jill

 

 

1080 poison the GOOD news

Last issue we reported that the Victorian Government had changed the rules to allow deadly 1080 poison to be sold from farmers' stores around the state. The purchaser just had to show they'd done a half-day handler's course and they could then buy a truck load. There's to be very little monitoring of where and how it's used after that (whacko, if you're a red-neck loonie!).

Well, the latest spanner in the works is that rural stores are shying away from handling the stuff because of the cost of becoming an accredited handler and stockist. Landmark, the state's largest rural merchandise store, said it wouldn't be touching the stuff as it wouldn't make a profit (due to the safety requirements needed). So far, only two stores have gained the OK to sell 1080, in Omeo and Ballarat.

The Victorian Farmers Federation chair, Geoff Kendell, said that if farmers can't get hold of the poison "the environment will suffer".

Jill / Weekly Times 21.11.07

PS
The 1080 aerial baiting trials being done beyond Swifts Creek were a classic stuff up. The 1,000 or so baits dropped from the air were under-dosed. This means dogs would have just become sick and learnt to be bait-shy. But other small meat-eating critters could have died. So they had to do it all again!     Sheesh!

 

Bastion Point plans abandoned

Mallacoota's proposed breakwater/boat ramp has been in dispute for several years. The East Gippsland Shire has been the proponent for this very contentious monstrosity. The Bastion Point Inquiry was suddenly adjourned by the Shire, claiming it was landed with new information by the DSE. DSE hasn't been terribly happy about the whole show right from the start and in fact the Shire planners knew this all along. But it was an easy way to step back from an increasingly embarrassing situation.

That was on the 5th of October. So the longer we hear nothing, the more it seems the Shire realised what a silly, damaging and costly exercise the whole thing was. This is one horrendous development that they weren't finding so easy to push through. This is the 3rd or 4th time this proposal has tried to get up over the last 17 years. Three cheers to the local community who mounted such a good campaign.

Jill

 

Should we ever endorse native forest logging?

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 Australian logging industry and its servants (governments) are belatedly trying to gain some sort of accreditation. They tried their own brand of self-certification in a cheap label called Australian Forest Standard (AFS), which didn't wash with the more savvy consumers. Now they are trying to gain the globally recognised label of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). FSC's credibility recently plummeted after they were exposed endorsing the logging of Sumatran rainforest!

PaperlinX, the company that makes Reflex writing paper, recently gained a very dodgy FSC interim certification label. This allowed them to plaster their reams of paper with a nice tree logo. Yet they are still taking logs from extremely contentious areas like Melbourne's water catchments, forests supporting threatened wildlife and old growth areas.

VicForests is now keen on getting FSC certification by the middle of 2008. The process normally must get the approval of all members who sit on the FSC board, including conservation groups. However, the official auditor is none other than one Hamish Crawford, who has a rather unsavoury environmental background. Technically, the auditor can OK a logging regime without the approval of the board members. But the board members have to develop the auditor's assessment standards. This could be difficult when there are mega industry combatants on the board as well.

EEG believes that the current board members representing the forest campaign (TWS, ACF and a couple of individuals) should be extremely careful not to be part of a system that just uses them to gain less than ideal certification. We are still in desperate need of securing more reserves for old growth, more water catchments and habitat for our rare wildlife. There is no indication yet that anything will change out there on the killing fields. Any compromises that help to give the logging brotherhood a foot in the door for a green tick or a will be a terrible mistake.

Jill

 

 

Industry Goss

Loggers lobby at Climate Change meeting!

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' CEO, Catherine Murphy, and Deputy CEO, Allan Hansard, represented the interests of the Australian logging industry at the Bali meeting. They spruiked the wonders of logging as a positive contribution to global warming. Murphy claimed that Aussie loggers are helping to replace a much bigger criminal because we knock down our forests in a much nicer way than all those other bad countries. Y'see, our carbon that gets released into the atmosphere is sprinkled with pink icing sugar.

Jill / NAFI media release 3.12.07

 

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Trish Caswell steps aside

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 forests for electricity. Even after Bracks made it clear in the lead up to the 2002 state election, that it wasn't on, his office kept lobbying for it. Dalidakis now showing up with VAFI makes it clear where he's coming from and what he'll be pushing. Given the rise of climate awareness and alarm, he'll be pushing it uphill. But it's the logger barons' last hope to keep brutalising and profiteering from our forests. Besides his connections with the ALP, we're not sure what lobbying talent this guy has.

Jill / Marcus

 

A tough task

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 of bods that Brumby has chosen for this task is none other than the two industry supporters, Peter Steedman and Graham Gooding (very adept at putting lipstick on pigs - as a friend would say) and another interesting character, Ian Kennedy. His history is in economics and politics. We hope he'll keep the other two on the straight and narrow.

Jill / SRM 28.11.07

 

Black Hole Timbers

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."

They've claimed they needed funds for fancy high tech processing systems to make fancy high-value products.

 

Sambar deer

After a lengthy process, the Sambar Deer has formally been listed as a threat to biodiversity in Victoria, and will be listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

Deer populations are increasing every year in Gippsland and their behaviour is threatening very sensitive areas such as rainforests and riparian forests. They can grow up to 1.2 metres tall at the shoulders and weigh 240 kg. They are like a small horse. They browse on native plants, some of which are rare and finding it hard to survive where deer are present. The males also severely thrash their antlers against young saplings and shrubs to mark their territory and remove the velvet from their new set of antlers each year. The population is estimated to be around 40,000 - 70,000 in eastern Victoria.

Rohan Bilney

 

Population overload

On 26th November 2007, there were 6,633,573,302 people in the world (6.6 BILLION). Australia had 21,148,712. We have one birth every 1 minute and 56 seconds, one death every 3 minutes and 59 seconds, one net international migrant every 3 minutes 11 seconds. Births outnumber deaths in Australia by 120,000 pa.

Sustainable Population Australia 12/07