For a decade, the Victorian government-owned forestry controller VicForests has been a tinderbox of incompetence looking for a match. Gifted a near monopoly on Victoria’s forestry, it is my view that the organisation has failed to manage our timber industry.

Too many forestry contractors working for VicForests broke the rules. From reports of logging outside allocations to logging old-growth forests, this has gifted activists solid legal pathways to halt harvesting and in turn, practically bankrupted the state-owned organisation.