A recent ABC report confirms that logs from Tasmania's public native forests are being shipped to Victorian sawmills, contradicting Forestry Tasmania's previous denials. The Tasmanian Greens have raised concerns that this practice undermines the promised end of native forestry in Victoria, with public subsidies propping up the industry. The article highlights the carbon emissions and biodiversity loss from continued native forest logging, arguing that these forests are more valuable as carbon stores than as timber. This story matters because it exposes a loophole in forest protection policies: while Victoria paid millions to phase out its own native forestry, it is now processing Tasmanian logs instead. The Greens call for an end to native forest logging across Australia and for closing the freight subsidy that enables this cross-border trade. For those tracking carbon accounting and land-use emissions, this is a concrete example of policy failure where carbon stored in native forests is being released instead of preserved.
