Very few people in this state realise the implications of the sale. Of the 160,000 hectares of land included in the sale, 20,000 hectares are native forest in the Strzelecki ranges. These forests include old growth and cool temperate rainforest, water catchments and one of the most genetically diverse koala populations in Australia, yet they were "described" by the State Government to overseas buyers as being plantation. One has to wonder, just what other information did the State Government avoid telling potential buyers? Was Hancock aware of what it was really buying into?
Responsibility for ensuring environmental compliance by Hancock in the Strzeleckis has been forced upon three local shires - La Trobe, Wellington and South Gippsland - because the Hancock land (according to the Code of Forest Practices, the legal document governing timber harvesting in Victoria) has been classed as private.
This effectively washes the State Government's hands of management responsibilities, while local ratepayers now have to pick up the tab for ensuring that Hancock does the right thing by the environment.
An "independent" forester who recently visited some VPC-cleared coupes in the Strzeleckis stated that logging is as bad as anything happening in tropical rainforests.
Unregulated forestry amounts to little more than industrial anarchy. Rabid economic ideology is the driving force of forestry in Victoria today. According to this philosophy, old growth forest, rainforest and native fauna have no economic importance and are therefore cleared to make way for more "economically productive", genetically engineered plantations.
By not keeping Hancock informed of all the issues regarding the sale
of VPC, Jeff Kennett and Ian Stockdale, far from enhancing Victoria's international
reputation, are doing the opposite. As details spread about the "on the
ground'' implications of this sale, I predict that Hancock will want a
lot of answers and will want to know why it was kept in the dark by the
State Government.