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Southeast forests: Auditor General Report limited by Forests NSW false accounting
Friday, 27 February 2009
Greens MP and spokesperson for southeast NSW Lee Rhiannon said today
that the latest NSW Auditor General’s report analysing southeast NSW
forestry operations has limited usefulness because of the failure of
Forests NSW to separate out native forest and plantation accounts,
obscuring the fact that plantation activities is subsidising the logging
of southeast native forests.
Ms Rhiannon said: “Woodchipping is a protected industry because of
Forests NSW’s scam accounting methods, which lock out the NSW Auditor
General making any meaningful analysis of forestry operations in
southeast NSW.
"Forests NSW’s practice of amalgamating the finances of plantation
and native forest activities frustrates any examination of the extent to
which plantation activities subsidise the logging of southeast native
forests.
"The Auditor General made the significant comment 'We were unable to
confirm the assumptions used were statistically reliable.' This is a
damming indictment of Forests NSW and Primary Industries Minister Ian
Macdonald.
"Mr Macdonald is a major part of the problem. Treasurer Eric Roozendaal
should step in and order Forests NSW to clean up their accounting
system. Honesty and transparency need to the starting point when this
data is compiled.
"The Auditor General’s report notes that the Productivity Commission
has already identified that Forests NSW are not operating on a
commercially viable basis.
"Only by separating out native forest and plantation accounts of
Forests NSW can the Auditor General paint a clear picture of the
economic loss incurred from logging southeast native forests," Ms
Rhiannon said.
Bega Greens Councillor Keith Hughes said, "Forests NSW’s accounting
system fails to assess the value of the carbon stored in native forests,
which even at a low price of $20 a tonne far exceed the royalties
Forests NSW receives from logging operations.
"These southeast native forests are an important carbon sink and
selling them off cheap for woodchips ignores their significant
environmental values.
"Because the environmental values of our southeast forests are not
included in the royalty price paid by woodchipping companies, the
commercial incentive from the underpricing of access to resources has
been to intensify logging effort," Clr Hughes said.
Contact: Lee Rhiannon 9230 3551, 0427 861 568; Keith Hughes 0414 908
997
Yesterday's Auditor General report:
http://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/publications/reports/financial/2009/vol1/pdfs/31_0173_forestry_commission_of_new_south_wales.pdf
The Greens have a new SE Forests site: http://end-southeast-woodchipping.org/