AUSTRALIA – Victorian taxpayers will fork out more than $38 million after state-owned logging agency VicForests was forced to compensate customers and contractors it could not supply with timber. VicForests chief executive Monique Dawson told a Supreme Court hearing on Friday it had paid out more than $12 million to contractors and $25 million to customers, and sent the invoice to the government. In the past financial year, VicForests recorded an unprecedented $52.4 million financial loss, which it blamed on the cost of court cases brought against it by community environment groups seeking to protect endangered species. The figure is significantly higher than the previous year’s loss of $4.7 million. On Friday, Dawson said court orders preventing timber harvesting until surveys for endangered species had been completed meant VicForests did not currently have any coupes – logging areas – it was able to log.