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After supporting previous agreements, the Nationals' state leader, Mr Peter Ryan, rejected the latest proposals, saying the job losses were unacceptable. Mr Ryan indicated support for the approach taken in Queensland, where the Government, unions, timber industry and conservationists agreed on an $80 million adjustment package that included establishing plantations to phase the industry out of forests.
The Commonwealth has so far refused to ratify the Queensland arrangement because, technically, the agreements exclude plantations. Under the proposed Victorian agreements, sawlog-grade timber volumes harvested from public native forest would drop by more than 30 per cent in the west and between nine and 20 per cent in Gippsland.
While more areas may be set aside for conservation, most of the volume cuts are a result of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment deciding there was less high-grade timber growing than it originally told the industry. Conservationists and community groups have condemned the proposals as a sham. They say the new conservation reserves are mostly in areas unsuitable for logging, or recovering from past logging.
The president of the Cobaw and Wombat Forest Action Group, Mr Marcus Ward, said $100 million had been squandered on the agreement process "to create a future with diminishing forests and a shrinking timber industry". He said if the money had been spent on expanding the resource, "we would be years down the path to a successful transition into plantations, secure jobs and an expanding rural work- force, and importantly an end to woodchipping, clear felling and forest destruction".
The State Government and the Commonwealth have distanced themselves
from the proposals, saying they will wait for an independent panel hearing
and public submissions. They are due to sign the agreements by 31 March
to ensure continuing woodchip exports.
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