A GOVERNMENT consultant closely involved with a controversial firebreak project that was investigated over the alleged theft of $1 million of timber from public land has emerged as a key figure pushing the Baillieu government to burn tens of thousands of tonnes of native forests to generate power.

Former Department of Sustainability and Environment forestry manager Gary Squires, a timber industry stalwart who is secretary of the Orbost Chamber of Commerce, has been lobbying the Baillieu government to build a ''biomass reactor'' power plant to replace jobs lost from East Gippsland's stricken logging industry.

The auditor-general in 2005 perceived a conflict of interest. Credit:Jason South

Mr Squires worked on the planning of an unusually large firebreak on Yalmy Road, East Gippsland, in the 2003 bushfire season that was investigated by the DSE and the Auditor-General after valuable trees were removed from public land and taken to local sawmills.

The government's logging company, VicForests, which is struggling to find markets for its timber, supports a biomass reactor and revealed in the annual report it tabled last week that it had plans to sell low-grade logs to such a project.