Thread: Victoria to end native logging

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

However the National Parks are so poorly managed the adjoining property owners become "de-facto managers" of the fringe areas of NP's that adjoin their properties. Feral animals particularly pigs & cats, declared weeds etc are simply not being managed by NP&W, yet gov't agencies seem to have an inordinate interest in whats happening on private land with what they deem to be "land clearing."

Well, in 'management speak', that's because the private land is the 'low hanging fruit' where they can get 'granular' 'traction for take off' to 'achieve mission success".

Or as others might say, because the owners of private land are sitting ducks for government and government agency action.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, it has the double benefit of holding up private land owners to the public as the primary problem while concealing that the real problem is government and government agency incompetence in managing government land such as Crown land, National Parks, coastal reserves, etc etc.

A government land agency isn't likely to issue an infringement notice to or prosecute itself for breaching its own legislation. Nor is its focus likely to be on such issues, because government and government agencies look outwards, not inwards.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

As TTIT highlighted above non-rainforest areas and species don't seem to be high on the agenda for environmental agencies where "native logging" as opposed to "native clearing" is occurring unless they are pushed into action by environment activists getting some publicity. There is a lot of logging pressure on dry forest species in the lower Cape York region that does not seem to be of interest to any one.

One of the many problems with modern media and poll driven governments is that often they give too much attention to the squeakiest wheels, not the ones that are actually driving anything important unless those wheels are supporters of the government. The forestry industry, or the gas industry, in Victoria isn't a wheel that supports the current or previous Labor governments and more importantly the Greens who have undue influence on government policy, so we don't have a forestry industry and we don't have gas exploration and gas won't be installed in new homes from the start of 2024. Apparently this is because we'll have abundant electricity from the start of 2024, despite the national energy market regulator having issued regular warnings in recent years that there might be blackouts in periods of high demand in winter and summer when we had gas as well as electricity.

It's similar to a company recoiling in horror and apologising profusely to its customers for some supposed transgression that offended one or two people who made a big noise on X (formerly Twitter, but rapidly confirming that X stands for the unknown). Then that issue got picked up by other social media and the mainstream media always looking for a story and converted those isolated complaints into a major current issue, of zero interest, importance to or effect upon 98% of the population who just get on with life without immersing themselves in ephemeral social media and mainstream media outrage.

Too much of what passes for public debate and public policy involves and is driven by what is essentially empty noise from well-meaning and passionate but ill-informed or uninformed people at all levels of society and government pursuing narrow agendas rather than considering dispassionately and accepting objective advice from people well qualified to give it after years of high level study and research, such as scientists in relevant fields.

There is also a disturbing lack of objectively critical reporting by mainstream media. My favourite example, going back many years, was when logging protestors who were passionately committed to saving every tree on the planet arrived at their protest site and promptly cut down large saplings to make 'tripods' - usually and structurally necessarily with rather more than three legs - to make an elevated stand to obstruct logging. Never once in print and television reports, opinion pieces, debates and analyses did anyone question the irony, or depending upon your point of view the hypocrisy, of people committed to stopping trees being cut down cutting down trees to save them.

Some groups and opinions get a free pass and influence government and other policy. It doesn't mean they're correct.