Native timber logging to be phased out by 2030 in Victoria
Gippsland towns face a dire future and thousands of jobs are at risk as Daniel Andrews calls an end to native timber logging, in a divisive move that has been praised by environmental groups.
VIC News
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Gippsland towns face a dire future and thousands of jobs are at risk as the state government takes an axe to the logging industry.
Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday announced Victoria’s native timber industry would be shut down by 2030, with an immediate ban on logging in 90,000 hectares of old growth forests.
A taxpayer-funded transition package worth $120 million over 10 years will retrain workers and fund mills to buy new equipment, but it is well below the amount expected by the industry.
Mr Andrews said the future of Australian Paper’s Maryvale Mill — the Latrobe Valley’s largest single employer with almost 1000 workers — was secure until at least 2050 as it moved to a plantation timber supply.
Environmental groups hailed the “long overdue” move but industry chiefs warned it would have a “highly destructive impact” on small businesses, families and communities including Orbost, Benalla and Heyfield.
Victorian Association of Forest Industries chief Tim Johnston blasted the government’s “lack of commitment to jobs and industry” and said it was a “devastating decision”.
Trevor Hodge said his family forestry business in Moe South relied on native logging contracts for 80 per cent of their work.
He said over-the-top restrictions had already damaged the environment and the industry.
“Ideally you would target a mosaic of locations so that natural wildlife isn’t disrupted,” Mr Hodge said.
“Over the last decade that’s changed. You might have state forest areas but within them there is a massive exclusion zone because of a Leadbeater’s Possum sighting miles away.”
“The end result is people have to harvest more trees from smaller areas. The irony is that these restrictions are actually hurting the environment and the industry.”
Mr Hodge said popular house features like hardwood floors could not be made from plantation trees.
“Now it will just be imported from a country where the natural logging industry isn’t regulated and done sustainably,” Mr Hodge said.
VicForests told logging contractors, in a letter obtained by the Herald Sun, that there would be a “significant step down in harvesting” in 2025/26 — a 44 per cent reduction in two years.
That fuelled fears the transition could be sped up by the government, as urged by the Greens.
The government also unveiled “the largest environmental protection plan in our state’s history”, with new logging restrictions on 186,000 hectares of forest to protect the Greater Glider and the Leadbeater’s Possum.
Mr Andrews said the industry had faced massive challenges and the overhaul was “a balanced approach” which provided “much-needed certainty for workers and their families”.
“It’s not like we’re flicking a switch and saying from next week there’s no timber for you,” he said.
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But Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said it was a “shameful and blatantly political decision” which would “rip the heart out of regional Victoria”.
“Labor has shown it will sacrifice hardworking people and family businesses to chase Greens Party preferences,” he said.
Nationals leader Peter Walsh said it threatened to “wipe towns like Orbost and Heyfield off the map”.
The timber industry has had annual access to just 0.04 per cent of the state’s forests and contributes almost $300 million to the economy.
Federal Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie said shutting down a “clean, green, sustainable, well-managed resource” would wipe out as many as 4700 jobs.