The truth about our logging industry

]ill Redwood, Goongerah, The Age (letter), 2/7/01

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Last week we were told the logging industry is making an $11 million profit for Victoria, in the draft report of a review of log pricing. We were also told that the government has handed over $43 million in direct grants to the same industry - taken from our taxes.

We've had the Auditor-General's report, the KPMG report, Marsdon Jacob Associates' report and numerous other investigations, all with the same findings: logging public forests is a massive loser for the public purse, let alone the environment.

This latest "she's apples" report can hardly be taken seriously especially when logs sell for as low as nine cents a tonne. The government still refuses to allow the public to access the monthly accounts even under Freedom of Information. Their clever accounting system hides many costs, such as regeneration failure, road damage, loss of public amenity, water quality etc. No private company could get away with it.

I hate to be cynical, but could Steve Bracks be positioning taxpayers to continue the endless welfare to this unpopular industry for another 15 years?

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