UPDATE 5.45pm: VICTORIAN Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu is suing the Labor government over an election TV ad which he says 'gravely injured his reputation'.

A writ was issued to the Labor Party about 2pm today after the Government failed to agree to Mr Baillieu's demand to withdraw the ad by noon.

The advertisement, which began running at the weekend, focuses on the opposition leader's former position as a director of real estate company Baillieu Frank Knight, which managed the sale of some schools and a hospital in the 1990s.

In the writ, Mr Baillieu alleges "the defendants knew that the meanings conveyed by the words were false".

He says in the writ he "will continue to suffer loss and damage" as a result of the ad.

The matter is due to go to court in February next year.



Meanwhile, the Greens have been attacked for running a Bob Katter impersonator ad that "demeans and humiliates'' country people.



The outcry comes as the state's peak forest industry's lobby group warns ghost towns will pop-up across regional Victoria if the Greens win the balance of power in the state election with up to 10,000 country jobs at risk.

The Victorian Association of Forest Industries is calling on voters to put the Greens last on Saturday.

The Country Alliance attacked the Greens for producing an online video that depicts a slow-talking farmer and his wife as a disgraceful attempt to stereotype country people as slow-witted, uncouth and bigoted.

"It confirms our view that the Greens are city-based lefties with a total disregard for the sensitivities and challenges facing country people,'' Country Alliance candidates Dennis Patterson said.

He called on the Greens to immediately remove the offensive video and apologise.

But Greens MP Greg Barber rejected the call for an apology and offered for Bob Katter to come down and star in the next video.

"We outpoll the Country Alliance three-to-one even in their best seats so I think we know what country people want more than they do,'' he said.

This comes after a Galaxy poll shows more than 70 per cent of Victorians want the level of native forests harvested to remain the same or increase.

VAFI chief executive Philip Dalidakis warned up to 24,000 direct jobs, including 10,000 in regional areas, are in danger under the Greens plan for the immediate ending of logging in the catchments and high conservation value forests.

He highlighted the regional towns of Dartmoor, Heyfield, Cann River and Rosedale as facing a bleak future.

"If the Greens get their wish, these towns and many like them will have their heart and soul ripped out,'' Mr Dalidakis said.

"Our Association believes a vote for the Greens is a vote for higher unemployment and lower standards of living.''

The Galaxy poll - paid for by VAFI - also shows an amazing 28 per cent of Green voters do not support their own party's forestry policy.

Mr Dalidakis warned the Greens' plantation solution was unrealistic and highly contradictory as it takes 30 years for the trees to grow.

VAFI is calling for a new approach to develop a sustainable native timber industry for the future.

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Originally published as Baillieu sues over Labor attack ad