Shoalhaven Council votes on native forest logging ban calls as NSW parliament petition looms
In an impassioned plea, Shoalhaven City Council Mayor Amanda Findley has joined activists in calling for an end to native forest logging despite pushback from some councillors and forestry workers. Find out which way the vote went.
The South Coast News
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Shoalhaven City Council has joined the ranks of South Coast councils discussing calls to end native forest logging in NSW, as local conservationists gathered outside Monday’s council meeting in support of a ban.
The motion, introduced by Councillor Moo D’Ath, would see the council writing to the state government to support a “rapid end” to native forest logging, and joins a similar motion which was carried at Eurobodalla Council in August.
Councillor D’Ath told the council she had been left “moved, shaken, and defeated” after re-entering the vast areas of the Shoalhaven decimated by the Black Summer bushfires, taken aback by the lack of wildlife.
“The habitats that are still left for those animals that survived are in danger (from logging),” she said.
“We need to stop thinking that these animals are just going to survive regardless.
“If we keep killing their habitat, they are all going to become endangered.”
Mayor Amanda Findley supported the motion, telling forestry workers councillors’ “beef” was not with them.
“We’re talking about a state government who wanted to sell out on the forestry workers,” she said.
“It‘s the state government who failed the industry, the workers, and the environment on every front.
“What we are asking the state government to do is get out now, because ‘whenever’ is not okay.”
As debate raged inside, protesters from a myriad of local conservation groups who have led the charge in the fight to end native forest logging gathered outside, including the Brooman State Forest Conservation Group.
Member Joslyn van der Moolen said that with systematic logging across so many of the region’s state forests, between the Kings Hwy and the Princes Hwy, local forests were being “hammered”, not protected.
“Forestry Corporation for NSW’s 12 months plan of operations, available on their website, has 23 compartments up for logging in the Batemans Bay Management Zone in the lower Shoalhaven,” she said.
“Logging must stop immediately in Southeast NSW’s native public forests, including active logging in Brooman State Forest, and steep mountainous Currowan and Shallow Crossing State Forests.”
Earlier this month, Ms Moolen spoke with The South Coast News during a visit to logged compartments of the Brooman State Forest, where she said the damage by native forest logging was undeniable.
The motion also comes before a key vote in state parliament in October on a potential moratorium, which also calls for a planned transition to plantation logging, after a petition to parliament passed 20,000 signees.
The petition was created by Brooman State Forest Conservation Group founding member and Green’s activist, 21-year-old Takesa Frank, who also spoke to The South Coast News earlier this month.
She told Shoalhaven Council on Monday that suggestions by NSW Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders that a transition would take 30 years should be headed, in so much as urgent action was needed.
“Tonight, I’m not only representing myself, but the community that lives in the Brooman area and the Shoalhaven residents that want to see an end to this destruction,” Ms Frank said.
“The petition we created shows that many residents want a transition out of this unsustainable industry.
“In 2021, the FCNSW suffered a $20 million loss which resulted in NSW taxpayers paying $441 per hectare of forest being logged. We are literally paying for our forest to be destroyed.”
Ms Frank said accusations by Mr Saunders that jobs were created from the logging industry were inaccurate.
“Many of the statistics regarding the jobs are misleading. In the Shoalhaven there are just four people employed by FCNSW, according to the 2011 census data,” she said.
“And, contractors that are currently doing the logging in the Shoalhaven are not local people, but have actually travelled from Victoria, Tasmania, and Eden.
“There are many opportunities for state forest workers that would be better for the economy and not destroy our environment.”
Ms Frank ran up against councillors who debated the impact an end to native forest logging in the city would have on jobs as well as forestry workers in the CFMEU, workers who also spoke before the council.
CFMEU NSW assistant secretary Alison Rudman said the push to end native forest logging was driven by emotions, not facts.
“These are emotions that seem based on a number of myths,” she said.
“These are strongly held myths, and are something that impacts every single timber worker.
“It impacts on young families like mine trying desperately to build homes. It is difficult for timber workers up and down the South Coast to see a motion like this. That’s why they’re here tonight.”
Ms Rudman said forestry workers “cared deeply about the environment”, and said FCNSW managed its forests to the highest standards, with measures put in place to ensure regeneration, despite recent fines.
She also hit back at claims by Ms Frank, Ms Moolen, and some councillors that the logged timber was being primarily used for pulp logs and other lower quality purposes.
“We know that the majority of this work is actually going to critical roles,” she said.
“It’s going into our houses, it’s going into our furniture.
“The idea that it’s just being chipped or put on someone’s fire is not borne out by many, many reports.”
Councillor Greg Watson said the narrative of anti-logging activists was disingenuous.
“The story we’re being told isn’t exactly correct,” he said.
“It’s a perceived story. Within the Shoalhaven, most of the forest is control by NSW National Parks.”
The other issue, Mr Watson said, was the proposed transition to plantation logging.
“It’s very easy to say we’ll just transition and we’ll cast the 1000 breadwinners on the scrapheap,” he said.
“Who’s going to pay their mortgages? Who’s going to fund the education of their children? Where are they going to work? Where are they going to live? Very, very selfish attitudes in our community.”
Mr Watson added that without Australian hardwood timbers, stores would stock wood from overseas, such as from Brazil and the Amazon where regulations and standards were not as high as in Australia.
The motion failed, with only councillors Findley, Da’th, and Evan Christen voting in favor.
An amendment put forward by Councillor Butler also failed.
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