The Senate Inquiry into Australia\u2019s animal extinction crisis today heard testimony that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews acknowledged the need to protect the highest conservation value forests, but buckled under pressure from VicForests, the state-owned logging company, to allow these forest areas to be logged.
\nPremier Andrews set up a Taskforce as an election promise in 2014, that was made up of environmentalists, industry and unions. The Taskforce\u2019s Statement of Intent noted the \u201ccurrent \u2018business-as-usual\u2019 response to the many complex issues facing Victoria\u2019s forests is insufficient, and that to continue in this way will be of detriment to all stakeholders and the broader community.\u201d
\n\u201cPremier Andrews was in a bind – despite knowing these areas of forests needed to be protected, VicForests had over-logged other forests and could therefore not fulfil future contracts. Daniel Andrews buckled under pressure from VicForests and industry, turned his back on the Taskforce and sold out these incredibly important forests and the threatened animals that live in them,\u201d said Sarah Rees of MyEnvironment Inc and member of the Taskforce.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s staggering that after acknowledging the importance of protecting these forests of highest conservation value, Premier Daniel Andrews is now allowing logging in these areas,\u201d said Senator Janet Rice, Australian Greens forest spokesperson and Chair of the Senate inquiry into Australia\u2019s extinction crisis.
\n\u201cDaniel Andrews needs to come clean with Victorians before Saturday\u2019s election about how he has shafted the environment to save his political skin after VicForests over-logged our forests.”
\n\u201cIn the meantime we have a serious extinction crisis on our doorstep, with animals like the Leadbeater\u2019s Possum on the brink of extinction because their homes are being logged overwhelmingly for woodchips. It\u2019s just madness.\u201d
\n\u201cCurrently, 88% of Victoria\u2019s timber comes from plantations. If we ended native forest logging and shifted to 100% plantation-sourced wood products, we\u2019d not only protect what\u2019s left of our precious forests and the endangered animals that rely on them, we\u2019d give regional communities and workers a long-term future.\u201d
\n\u201cA vote for the Greens is a vote for the Great Forest National Park now and for many generations to come. A vote for Labor and Liberal is a vote for ongoing destruction.\u201d
\n\u201cLogging and woodchipping are driving threatened species such as koalas, the Leadbeater\u2019s possum, the greater glider and the swift parrot to extinction, all under the auspices of Regional Forest Agreements that exempt logging from national environment laws,\u201d said Wilderness Society Victorian Campaign Manager Amelia Young.
\n\u201cAustralia is in the grips of an extinction epidemic. We have the worst mammal extinction rate on the planet and it\u2019s only getting worse. We are also the second worst in the world for biodiversity loss, only beaten by Indonesia. We need new national environment laws that actually protect nature and an independent watchdog, an Environmental Protection Authority, to enforce the laws.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senate Inquiry into Australia\u2019s animal extinction crisis today heard testimony that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews acknowledged the need to protect the highest conservation value forests, but buckled under pressure from VicForests, the state-owned logging company, to allow these forest areas to be logged. Premier Andrews set up a Taskforce as an election promise in … Continue reading “Daniel Andrews acknowledged need to protect highest conservation value forest, allowed it to be logged anyway, Senate Inquiry into animal extinction crisis hears”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}