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11/12/07  State's green report card in the red, Adam Morton, The Age

 07/12/07 Report card reveals Brumby government dragging it's feet on environment, by CamWalker; Joint Media Release

02/12/07 How to turn $99 million worth of trees into a $17,000 loss.Peter Weekes, The Sunday Age

State Water 2/12/07 Vic bolsters bushfire preparation plans AAP Central Highlands; Dec 07

State's green report card in the red

Adam Morton, The Age
December 11, 2007

HALF of the Victorian Government's environment promises before the 2006 election have been broken or are at risk of not being delivered, according to a damning report card by leading conservation groups.

The analysis — designed to check whether the Government would meet its commitments under new Premier John Brumby — found three pledges had been broken and little or no progress had been made on another 31.

Broken promises listed in the Envirowatch report included failing to boost environmental flows to stressed rivers, including the Murray, and not immediately protecting 33,500 hectares of old-growth forest, including part of the Goolengook Forest in East Gippsland.

More than half of the state's climate change pledges — including cutting government energy use to 20% below 2000 levels by 2010 and introducing a "landmark" climate change bill — were considered in jeopardy.

Environment Victoria chief executive Kelly O'Shanassy said that while 27 environment policies announced before the election were on target to be delivered, only seven had been kept so far.

"John Brumby cares more about the economy than the environment," she said. "You would expect them to deliver on more than 25% of promises because the first year after the election is by far the most active in the political cycle."

On climate change, the report says the big test for the Government is one not directly covered by its promises — how it deals with the state's reliance on dirty coal-fired power stations that generate most of its carbon emissions.

"What we're really missing is a short-term target to reduce pollution that informs all Government decisions," Ms O'Shanassy said.

The analysis, which is backed by the Victorian National Parks Association, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Friends of the Earth, the Wilderness Society and Greenpeace, also found positives in the state's performance. It describes the Government as innovative on climate change compared with other states, and gives a tick for its "world-class" work making irrigation more efficient and improving the Yarra.

But Ms O'Shanassy criticised Mr Brumby's overall performance on rivers, pointing to his rejection of draft recommendations by the Victorian Environment Assessment Council to flood the Murray with billions of litres of water.

"It appears the Government is moving backwards on its commitment to river health," she said.

The Government disputed many of the ratings. Spokeswoman Stacy Hume said river flows for all purposes — agricultural and domestic as well as environmental — were down due to the drought, and that VicForests had accepted a written agreement not to log the promised hectares of old-growth forest, with legislation to follow next year. But Wilderness Society campaigns manager Gavan McFadzean said more than half of the forest area set down for protection was either unloggable or had already been logged.

Ms Hume said: "With three years remaining in the term, it is far too soon to suggest policies are at risk … many promises listed 'at risk' are in fact well under way.

"The Victorian Government remains committed to improving the health of our rivers and waterways but, with water in such scarce supply, all water users, including the environment, are having to cut back."

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Report card reveals Brumby government dragging it's feet on environment

by CamWalker — last modified 2007-12-15 13:59

More than half of the Victorian Government’s environment election promises are at risk of being undelivered or have already been broken, a new report from leading environment groups says. Our highlighting

Friday 7 December 2007

More than half of the Victorian Government’s environment election promises are at risk of being undelivered or have already been broken, a new report from leading environment groups says.

The report, Envirowatch: one year in, was compiled by Environment Victoria (EV) in partnership with the Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA), Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), The Wilderness Society (TWS), Friends of the Earth (FoE) and Greenpeace.

"While many of the Government’s initiatives are progressing well, it is very concerning that over half of their promises are already in jeopardy,’’ EV CEO Kelly O’Shanassy said. "Government will need to work hard over the next three years to ensure it upholds its commitments to the environment.’’

The majority of the Government’s broken promises relate to improving river health. Ms O’Shanassy said the decision to raid rivers of their legal water entitlements to provide water for urban use and agriculture indicated the Government did not truly value rivers and wetlands.

"That’s a problem given that rivers supply almost all our water needs in Victoria and underpin the Victorian economy and our lifestyles,’’ Ms O’Shanassy said.

"Unfortunately, even if all these promises are met, they are unlikely to ensure Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions actually fall,’’ she said. "What we’re really missing is a short-term target to reduce pollution that informs all government decisions.’’

"In East Gippsland we will be looking closely to ensure Premier Brumby meet his promise to remove 41,000 hectares of old growth forests from logging, equating to nearly 80,000 hectares of new reserves,’’ Mr Fadzean said. "The Premier also needs to ensure that almost all the Cobobbonee forest is protected in new National Park."

VNPA executive director Matt Ruchel said progress was being made on protection of Murray River Red Gum forests through the Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC) process.

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How to turn $99 million worth of trees into a $17,000 loss.

Peter Weekes, The Sunday Age
December 2, 2007

THE State Government sold the equivalent of 4745 MCGs of native forests to private timber companies last year for less than it cost the Government to fell the trees and ship them to the buyers.

Despite selling the timber for $99 million, and other revenue of $4 million, VicForests ended in the red with a $17,000 loss once expenses such as haulage were taken out, according to the agency's annual report.

VicForests is the quasi-government body charged with commercialising the state's forests. Most of the timber sold at a loss went into pulp.

"We have got a situation where the three south-eastern state governments are underpricing the forest resources," said Judith Ajani, an economist at the Australian National University who managed Victoria's forest policy in the 1980s. "This will favour those companies exporting native forest-based chip against those who have invested in plantations."

In an emailed response to The Sunday Age, VicForests chief executive David Pollard defended the result: "A loss of $17,000 is because the incurred expenses were greater than the revenue derived."

He added: "We expected to sell more wood during this period but our operations were disrupted because of the 2006-07 Great Divide bushfires." He did not clarify whether greater sales would have led to a proportional increase in haulage and harvest costs.

The timber take this year was 1.59 million cubic metres, down 243,000 cubic metres from the previous year.

In a bid to improve profits, VicForests underwent a shake-up this year, taking on all harvesting and haulage.

The agency sold about two-thirds of the trees, including 100-year-old mountain and alpine ash, for pulp. It charged mills $9.97 a cubic metre, or $8.52 a tonne, plus delivery, Mr Pollard said.

Plantation pulp, largely owned by management investment schemes, on average sells for about $35 a cubic metre, not including delivery, according to a survey of prospectuses. Once the timber is processed, the pulp sells for about $US860 ($A971) a tonne.

Mr Pollard said Victorian native-forest pulp was cheaper than pulp from other states because of the haulage distances and its poorer quality, particularly compared with plantations.

Two of the three big mills that bought the timber — Australian Paper, a subsidiary of PaperlinX and Japanese-owned South East Fibre Exports — posted a combined profit of $87 million last financial year, according to Australian Securities Exchange and Australian Securities and Investments Commission filings. The privately held Midway did not release its profit.

Ms Ajani said VicForests' result showed that native forest logging could not economically compete against plantations, which now provide about three-quarters of the state's wood.

"Native forest logging businesses Australia-wide have always been problematic commercially," she said "As economically superior plantation resources come in, the capacity for native forest-based operations to be profitable becomes more and more problematic."

She said forest logging — which necessitates clear-felling — posed many costly problems, including biodiversity issues, that plantations did not face.

"When you grow wood in a plantations regime, you don't have to compromise on ecological factors: you can select your species, you can plant them in rows, you can plant them relatively tightly, you can use fertiliser to make them grow faster, and you can reduce your harvesting and transport costs by putting them close to the mill," she said. "Everything about a plantation regime is cost-attractive for a wood product industry and that's ultimately the problem when you are a wood grower in a native forest — you can't provide the volumes and quality of the resource to suit the processing interest of your sawmillers and pulp producers."

Despite the loss, VicForests paid the State Government a dividend of $2 million.

But for at least the second consecutive year, this was paid out of retained earnings. Companies usually pay dividends from current-year profit, as retained earnings from previous years are normally used as "rainy day" funds.

VicForests received a $10 million State Government grant to expand its salvage operation following the Christmas bushfires; but it used only about $868,000. It also received $2.25 million worth of services from government departments.

At a time when there are fears that native forest logging is fuelling climate change, Ms Ajani and the Wilderness Society have accused state and federal governments of subsidising the sector at the expense of the more economically viable plantation sector.

"Many plantation sawmillers have commented on how hard it has been to win market share, largely because of the subsidies that have come from state governments," Ms Ajani said, adding that about two-thirds of timber jobs were in plantations and paper-making.

■HOW TO MAKE A LOSSPulp sales 1 million cubic metresSawlog sales 500,000 cubic metresTOTAL 1.59 million cubic metresTotal sales revenue $99 millionTotal revenue $103.36 millionHarvesting $34 millionHaulage $34 millionNET LOSS $17,000SOURCE: VICFORESTS 2007

TOTAL EXPENSES $103.34 million

ANNUAL REPORT

■WHO MADE A PROFIT, which owns Australian Paper that operates the Maryvale Mill in Gippsland, posted a profit of $80.1 million last financial year.

PaperlinX

South East Fibre Exports, which operates a mill in Eden, posted a profit of $6.8 million.

Midway, which operates a mill in Geelong, is privately held and not required to release its profit.