Parliamentary representatives in Canberra are a long way from the people that voted them into power: not only in distance but also in heart and mind. Both the Coalition and Labor share in this.

The Federal Liberal party has walked away from those things that matter to people, the things that people feel. They claim that economic credibility is all that matters.

Yet even in this they have failed. Every economic analysis of logging of native forests reveals an industry that must be shut down. The alternatives of farm forestry and plantations are the answer, not an industry that is destroying its own basis.

Logging of native forests carries with it massive subsidies, it costs Victorians $2.25 in taxpayer subsidies for every dollar that the government receives in royalties.

A recent Australian Conservation Foundation analysis of the anti-competitive nature of taxpayer subsidies reveals an industry that requires our taxes to keep up the destruction. While the rest of society has had to undergo the rigors and costs of the National Competition Policy, the logging industry has been cushioned from scrutiny. If Canberra removed subsidies to this industry it would fade away like a bad dream, a nightmare that cannot bear exposure to daylight.

Both sides of politics prefer to ignore the employment created in ecotourism in preference to continued logging. Communities in the forests know that their survival depends on bringing in people to appreciate forests and all that they offer rather than bulldozers.

Labor crossed the floor to vote with the government to pass laws that will allow the burning of our forests to generate power.