West Australian Government Risks Losing Funding Over Logging Stance
7/28/99
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Title: Court cave-in on logging risks $20m
Source: The Australian
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: July 28, 1999
Byline: ROGER MARTIN
THE West Australian Government has taken on a fight with Canberra and
put $20 million of federal funding at risk after buckling under
community pressure to stop logging in the State's old growth forests.
Premier Richard Court announced yesterday that logging of old growth
karri and tingle forests would stop from 2003 when contracts with
timber companies expired. Logging of old-growth jarrah would continue,
but harvesting would be largely limited to uses involving value-
adding. The Government would also seek to buy out some timber
contracts.
The decision, made 12 weeks after both governments signed a regional
forest agreement designed to secure the future of timber companies and
their workers, will cost about 1500 jobs. The south-west towns of
Pemberton and Greenbushes will be hardest hit.
West Coast Eagles coach Mick Malthouse, a fierce critic of the RFA,
gave cautious support to the plan.
Mr Court discussed the changes with John Howard last Friday, but
failed to get support for the deal. "I think it's fair to say the
Prime Minister is not happy with the changes that we are going to
proceed with," he said.
Federal Forestry Minister Wilson Tuckey was in Helsinki yesterday, but
in a statement said Mr Court had effectively reneged on the RFA, and
put the funding for industry restructuring in doubt.
"Today's action to reduce the resource available to industry places
considerable doubt over the funding opportunities that will be
available to assist timber industry development ventures, which may
not not proceed," Mr Tuckey said.
But Mr Court maintained his changes did not affect the RFA. "In no way
are we walking away from the RFA, and the Federal Government knows
that," he said. "If the Federal Government even threatened they were
going to withdraw some of that money, they would have a fight on their
hands.
"We as a State Government have a very close understanding as to what
the community's expectations are, and it would be wise for the Federal
Government to also listen to those concerns."
The organisation leading the fight to save old-growth forests, the WA
Forest Alliance, said it was not satisfied by the decision.
Alliance spokesman Peter Robertson said forest protests would
continue, if not increase. He claimed about one-eighth of existing
old-growth karri and tingle would be lost before the changes took
effect in 2003, and the future of old-growth jarrah forest remained in
serious doubt.
The Liberal and National parties settled on the changes yesterday
after a joint meeting which continued for 3® hours. Local Government
Minister Paul Omodei, whose Warren-Blackwood seat incorporates most of
the south-west timber towns, walked out of the meeting 10 minutes
before it finished.
WA Forest Industry Federation spokesman Bob Pearce said the timber
companies had been sold out.