By KATH GANNAWAY
ENVIRONMENT Minister Lisa Neville has said there will be no pre-determined outcomes from a new industry taskforce set up to look at Central Highlands native forests.
Ms Neville told the Mail she believed the climate was changing on the divisive issue of logging of native forests and the preservation of both the forests and Leadbeater’s Possum.
On the proposition that the two were mutually exclusive, Ms Neville said everything was on the table.
“We went to the election with a commitment to do the industry taskforce,” she said.
“It will acknowledge the importance of jobs in the forest industry, whether plantation or other, and will acknowledge some environmental issues, including the future of the possum.”
The new ‘climate’ in which the taskforce will be working includes the recent classification of Leadbeater’s Possum as critically endangered and a recommendation by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee that ceasing timber harvesting in mountain ash forests was the most effective way to prevent further decline of the possum.
On those points, and the previous government’s attempt to come to a resolution with the Leadbeater’s Possum Advisory Group (LPAG), Ms Neville said the taskforce would be working with different parameters.
LPAG was co-convened by Zoos Victoria and the Victorian Association of Forest Industries and included representatives from Parks Victoria, VicForests and the Leadbeater’s Possum Recovery Team.
Their brief was to provide recommendations to the government that focused on supporting the recovery of the possum while maintaining a sustainable timber industry.
Ms Neville said the new taskforce would not come with a predetermined outcome.
“LPAG was not a forum,” she said.
“There was a limitation on what that group could do, and Zoos would say they had terms of reference that did not go beyond that.
“I’m not saying ‘here are my terms of reference’, it’s all on the table with the need to genuinely look at these issues.
“The question of ‘Do we need a Great Forest National Park?’ was never on the table before, and how do you get there, given jobs and the industry?
On her own view of whether the solution lay in the creation of the Great Forest National Park, and whether she was in favour of it, Ms Neville said her position had been consistent.
“I am in favour of allowing the key parties to find solutions.
“We have a process which is about looking at the issues and looking at a way that is least divisive,” she said.
“I think everyone sitting around the table is there not to be divisive, but to find solutions.”
The industry taskforce includes the timber industry, government, union and environment groups.
