Conservationists have predicted a "return to the forest battlegrounds of old" after the apparent defeat of a proposal by the Minister for the Environment Senator Robert W, for a green outcome in the first agreement under the national forest peace plan.
Government sources confirmed this week that a last-minute proposal by Senator Hill to preserve 10 times more forest in Victoria's East Gippsland than envisaged under the peace plan process had been sidelined in negotiations between Senator Hill, the Minister for Primary Industry, Mr John Anderson, and the Victorian Government
The plan had the strong support of conservation groups, but was bitterly opposed by the forest industry and Liberal backbenchers from Victorian timber seats, who appealed to the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, to intervene. The Government is now trying to play down the tensions caused by Senator Hill's plan, but its failure has left conservationists angry and disappointed.
"As a result of information put to the Government by the conservation movement and scientists, Senator Hill made a valiant effort to address serious concerns with the process," a spokeswoman for the Wilderness Society, Ms Virginia Young said yesterday. "I understand those attempts have failed ... The process has failed to provide conservation security, which means it also won't be able to deliver jobs security because people will return to forest protests. It will be a return to the forest battlegrounds of old."
But the director of the National Association of Forest Industries, Dr Robert Bain, said the apparent sidelìning of Senator Hill's proposal simply meant that the forest process, set up under the Keating government, could continue. "Our understanding is that the ministers are now back to discussing the original range of options, and Senator Hill has not succeeded in steering the process off in some other direction," Dr Bain said.
The East Gippsland agreement, set to be the first finalised Regional Forest Agreement in Australia, was due to be signed before the end of 1996. But Senator Hill, Mr Anderson and the Victorian Government failed to reach an agreement in time. The agreement is now due to be signed by the Mr Howard and the Victorian Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, before the end of this month.
The four options developed under the joint Federal-State process reserved around 0.6 per cent more forest than at present Senator Hill's option is understood to have proposed reserving an extra 6 per cent The Federal-State forest peace plan involves protecting about 15 per cent of the area of each forest type existing at the time of European settlement.