The Victorian environment minister’s office has refused to extend public consultation on alarming changes that would significantly deregulate logging in Victoria’s native forests and undermine community legal challenges to perceived illegal logging.
Wednesday, July 28.
At a time when stronger protections are desperately needed for forests and wildlife after the catastrophic bushfires of 2019/20, the Department seems to be hell bent on weakening the laws which govern logging. A major review of the bushfires’ impact on our forest landscapes is still underway, but the government is rushing through substantial changes to the Code of Practice for Timber Production. They have given communities less than a month to respond to the complex changes, which are spread out over more than 350 pages of documents.
We acknowledge that this webinar will be hosted on the stolen, unceded lands of the Traditional Custodians of so-called Victoria. We pay our respects to the elders past and present of the land we are calling in from and to the Traditional Owners of the land we are campaigning to protect from native forest logging, including the Taungurung, Wurundjeri Woiwurrung, Gunnai Kurnai, Dhudhuroa, Jaitmathang, and Bidawel people.