A moment that we have all fought so hard for, for so long, has finally arrived.
Native forest logging will end in Victoria on 1 January next year.
As a girl who joined forest protests and blockades in her early 20s, this is a moment I will not easily forget.
Labor has been dragged kicking and screaming to this decision.
It only happened because citizen scientists, environment groups, First Nations people, and local residents campaigned and protested and found threatened species and brought court cases to stop logging coupe by coupe, and because Greens and activists kept up the pressure on Labor inside and outside the Parliament, for years.
This decision today shows that campaigning, resisting and protesting works!
All our actions combined made it untenable for Labor to continue logging in Victoria.
It’s important to know that this isn’t the end of the fight to save our environment. The State Budget will be handed down today and we’re anticipating huge, billion-dollar cuts to environment and biodiversity programs.
We also don’t know whether the Labor Government will attempt to continue some logging on the sly under the guise of ‘salvage logging’ or ‘debris cleanup’- so the fight continues to restore our damaged ecosystems.
But today, let’s celebrate the fact that native forest logging will end in January.
Thank you so much to everyone who has joined this fight over the years.
This wouldn’t have happened without you.
