The Australian federal government is threatening to withhold A$15m of timber industry funding from Western Australia.
The federal government says it will not release the money until the state commits to a logging allocation of at least 200,000m3 per year. But the state, in the middle of drawing up a forest management plan, is only prepared to consider annual yields of either 164,000m3 or 106,000m3.
Premier of Western Australia Geoff Gallop has accused the federal government of playing politics with the issue and said it should accept that the state had community support to move away from logging old-growth forests.
A recent report warns that a yield of 164,000m3 will lead to at least 700 timber industry job losses.
