Log of claims

By Kath Gannaway
A LOGGING contractor who says he has lost $80,000 because of protest action on the Gun Barrel coupe at Toolangi, has challenged protestors to take their case to the public and the politicians in Melbourne.
Malcolm Warnock spoke out at a community meeting at Toolangi on Thursday night attended by more than 100 conservationists involved in or supporting protest action aimed at securing a moratorium on logging in the Toolangi State Forest.
Mr Warnock said his crew had been unable to work for four out of five working days every week since protests started on 25 July, and that he had cut his crew from four to two in an effort to try to meet repayments on equipment.
Mr Warnock and Healesville contractor Michael McKinnell were among a handful of local logging industry people at the meeting.
Mr Warnock said he spoke up when Wilderness Society campaign spokesman Luke Chamberlain told the meeting the protest was not about targeting local contractors or local loggers.
“You have said it’s not about me, but I have lost $80,000 so far from this campaign and I don’t see anybody here who believes this forest should be saved putting their hand in their pocket to pay me back,’ he said.
“I have a contract with the government …if it is not about me, then take your fight to Melbourne.”
Mr Warnock said he did not go to the meeting to argue about whether it was right to log native forest, or that the government should have reassessed VicForests logging programs after the 2009 fires.
“I am conducting a legal logging operation for the government of Victoria and I, and my crew are the ones who are losing out,” he said.
“If people disagree then they need to lobby the government; climb the Arts Centre tower and they will get more media than they are getting up here.”
Mr McKinnell said he had no problem with people protesting, but, like Mr Warnock, he had a legal contract with the Victorian Government which he said he expected to be honoured.
“I strongly believe in your right to protest, and I respect that right, and your courage, but I have been involved with protests like this and it materially hurts you,’ he said. “It doesn’t hurt the minister, or the government.
“When the government comes out and says it’s putting a stop to forestry, I will accept that,” he added.
In response to Mr Chamberlain’s invitation for Mr Warnock and Mr McKinnell to go to the government together with the conservation groups and negotiate a way out of native forests, Mr Warnock told the Mail he believed in the timber industry as a sustainable industry. He rejected claims by conservation groups that logging native forest was an industry which was in its death throes.
Mr McKinnell said the Toolangi protests were part of a bigger agenda.
“There are some issues around Toolangi, and for the local community it is about the local coupes, but for the people from Melbourne it’s part of a wider issue, forestry in general.
“I don’t believe I have an inherent right to log native forests. I won a competitive tender and won a contract in that tender and like any other commercial agreement I expect that to be honoured,” he said.
“There are inherent risks in business, but I fundamentally believe restraint of trade is just not on,” he added.
Mr McKinnell said he listened to the debate on forestry, respected the different points of view and took them on board.
“At the end of the day I do believe in forestry passionately; I believe it is sustainable, but that’s not to say it’s sustainable everywhere.
Mr McKinnell said he believed a great deal of local concern about the forests was sincere.
“But, you have to remember, a lot of people can’t separate we as individuals with what we do as a chosen vocation and that makes it hard.
“I think there are some locals who have some sympathy with us, but from the professional side of conservation, they just don’t like what we represent.”