Victoria’s former Agriculture Minister Mary-Anne Thomas
The Victorian Government has been caught out putting anti-logging activists ahead of taxpayers in a letter it fought hard to keep confidential. Source: Weekly Times
For months former Agriculture Minister Mary-Anne Thomas repeatedly blocked requests for copies of a letter she wrote to VicForests in February directing its board to back off taking legal action to recover a $2 million debt from the MyEnvironment activists.
At the time Ms Thomas said, “no direction” was given to Vic Forests by the Victorian Government”. Yet the Minister and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions rejected Freedom of Information requests for copies of the letter, stating its release was “contrary to the public interest”.
But when Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh lodged an appeal with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal the government finally caved in, releasing a copy of the letter.
In the letter to then VicForests chairman Chris Lovell, Ms Thomas states recovering the court-ordered costs against MyEnvironment was “not in the best interests of the Victorian Government”.
She also told Mr Lovell that given MyEnvironment was a charity any action by VicForests to recover costs would not comply with the state’s Model Litigant Guidelines and that given the case dated back to 2015 it was beyond the six-year statute of limitations.
Yet Section 5 of Victoria’s Limitation of Actions Act 1958 states: “an action shall not be brought upon any judgment after the expiration of 15 years from the date on which the judgment became enforceable”.
Even the government’s own guidelines state the model litigant “obligation does not prevent the State from enforcing costs orders or seeking to recover costs”.
Mr Walsh said the Minister was obliged to recover the money taxpayers had spent on the case.
“This pattern of behaviour is symptomatic of the Government and how they treat transparency and democracy,” he said.
The debt was the result of a 2015 Supreme Court order demanding MyEnvironment cover VicForests legal costs after the anti-logging activists lost a case they brought against the state-owned native forest harvest manager. Since then, the $1.2 million debt has ballooned to $2 million on the back of unpaid interest.
The Weekly Times understands VicForests received legal advice in late 2021 that it had fresh grounds to pursue the recovery of the debt from MyEnvironment and its directors.
In her letter Ms Thomas told Mr Lovell “thank you for our discussion on 4 October 2021 regarding the costs awarded to VicForests against MyEnvironment Inc by the Supreme Court on 17 March 2015”.
On May 31 Mr Lovell was replaced by Labor Party loyalist Ben Hubbard, who was former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s chief of staff and political adviser to former Labor Premier Steve Bracks.
