Congratulations on raising these issues. Country people have always been aware of media omission of factors important to the rural community and media manipulation of urban voters. As a contributor and reader to this Online blog I'm appreciative of the opportunity to read features that reveal the 'other side' of media stories. Blogs are the public forum of the future as people seek after information. I am about to launch my own blog on issues of importance to me. This will only achieve a readership if it is pertinent.

I think it is fascinating that you can get away with saying that this campaign is all about "city green fundamentalists" (as one of the more absurd commentators put it) and "locals".

It is as if Yorta Yorta haven't been involved in this campaign at all, this particular silence on the part of the RRGEA, makes your article reek of propaganda rather than anything of substance. (Congratulation though on finding some Indigenous people who disagree with the recommendations, this must have felt like a real coup).

Your back-handed comment that co-management recommendations are "widely viewed as compensation for the Yorta Yorta whose claim for Native Title over the Barmah Forest was defeated in the High Court" is also rather curious. It is as if you are saying that compensation is a form of willy-nilly political correctness, rather than an important step towards restitution (an argument I doubt I will see you make about the inevitable compensation to graziers/loggers, etc). Or perhaps you are saying that because Yorta Yorta chose to go down the road of Native Title they have forfeited any right to claim their land (denying the long history of active assertions to that land)?

Or maybe you have full faith in the decision of the High Court that reaffirmed the fantasy of terra nullius, and that you now are denying all together the existence of Yorta Yorta?

Not surprisingly, the same groups who banded together in a united front against Yorta Yorta in the negotiations for Native Title case, have come together again with the same aspirations. This time conveniently actively disengaging with the concept that LOCAL Indigenous peoples have been at the forefront of the campaign for a National Park.

Here’s to the Victorian government handing back the Barmah forest, and leasing it back with no-strings-attached rental arrangement.

And do excuse me for being a little bit, um, “cynical” of your position when it seems like you have been hired to be a part of the RRGEA green-wash propaganda machine.

Mark Poynter and his Institute of Public Affairs fake green group are amazing. I recorded the Stateline story he refers to as being bias, and the loggers got more airpaly than the greenies. His concern appear to be that his dodgy 'alternative' report, put together over a few months, with no public consultation recieved no coverage. Having read it, it is hardly surprising. It simply advocates the status quo. Well done logging bozos.

Mark, Thanks for this report. Its a pity that the ABC did not devote the same airplay to the community report as that they gave recently to an "independent" scientific report by the ANU and funded by the Wilderness Society.

I found out from the Internet rather than our own ABC that timber dependent communities along the Murray have been left stunned and frustrated by the release of the Victorian Environment Assessment Councils (VEAC) River Redgum Forest Investigation.

The general feeling seems to be that the final recommendations are nothing short of arrogant and highlight VEAC’s lack of understanding for rural communities. It seems the ABC Stateline program has the same disease.

Whilst the ABC showed a sawmiller stating the region’s unique timber industry will have a whopping 80% cut to the sustainable yield as a result of approximately 90,000ha of state forest being converted to National Parks. The impact on community appears to be barely mentioned.

The economic contribution and the jobs dependent on the industry appears to have been under valued by VEAC who have ignored the industry in past studies.

Didn't VEAC's predecessor use a professional PR firm to target the media over the Box Ironbark lock up, perhaps the media have been 'managed' again?

Nor did the program mention, or has the industry for that matter, that there needs to be at least a 30% cut and possibly upto a 60% cut in the size of the current 'industry' in Red Gum forests. DSE figure show this. New parks or no new parks, the industry is screwed.

To 'roadsideservice'
I do not claim to have any great knowledge of the indigenous situation or the history of the Yorta Yorta NT. My expertise lies elsewhere and this aspect of the debate was mentioned only in passing in one sentence (I think)in an article that was really focussed on media bias.

However, if you lived in the area as you seem to be implying, you would be aware through the local media, that three indigenous groups have at different times expressed concern and/or opposition to VEAC's indigenous proposals - the Bangerang, the Latji Latji, and Wamba Wamba. A major difficulty seems to be long standing disputes over just which group/s are traditional custodians of which land/s.

You may well be correct about the Yorta Yorta's long-standing desire for a Barmah NP. However, this is a bit different to putting virtually all the forests from the Ovens River to Swan Hill in five NPs which is essentially what VEAC has recommended.

I can't stop you being "a little bit, um, cynical, of my position" because I did work for the RRGEA. But really now, how else do you think I know so much about the issues to be able to write the article? This was one of the central themes of the article - the disturbing reality that this cynicism effectively dismisses the views of those who know the most because they live and work in the area, in favour of those (perhaps like yourself?) who are big on passion and emosion in support of a nice idea, but may know diddly-squat(and mostly don't care) about how it will actually affect land management, the environment, and the community that has to actually live with the changes.