Hypocrisy claim in Tasmanian native logging deal

The Victorian government, which trumpets its exit from native forest logging, has been accused of hypocrisy, with the bosses of a company it part-owns buying into Tasmania’s native timber trade.

ASH sawmill at Heyfield in Victoria will receive some native forest timber supply from Tasmania if a proposed mill sale proceeds. Picture: Facebook

The Victorian government, which trumpets its exit from ­native forest logging, has been ­accused of hypocrisy, with the bosses of a company it part-owns buying into Tasmania’s native timber trade.

Native forest logging will be phased out from 2024 in Victoria, but it has been revealed that ­senior directors of Australian Sustainable Hardwoods, part-owned by Victorian taxpayers, are negotiating to buy a native forest sawmill in Tasmania.

Victorian taxpayers spent more than $50m to buy a 49 per cent state in ASH in 2017 to save its Heyfield sawmill, in Gippsland, from closure.

Two of ASH’s most senior directors – managing director Vince Hurley and secretary Ian Jones – have set up a company to purchase Artec’s Western Junction sawmill in northern Tasmania, which processes native forest logs.

The Tasmanian mill will supply ASH with timber products, including from native forests, a product being phased out in Victoria by ASH’s part-owner, the Andrews government.

This has raised the hackles of some Tasmanian timber players, who claim it amounts to a double standard. “It definitely seems like hypocrisy – it’s quite astounding that this company is looking to enter into the Tasmanian market considering that it’s major shareholder and backer is the Victorian government,” said Matthew Torenius, spokesman for the Tasmanian Sawmillers Association.

“Many of these smaller mills around Tasmania are family ­operations and not big corporate competitors like ASH and don’t have the $10m or more in government grants like ASH has had over the years,” he said.

A Victorian government spokeswoman did not directly address questions about the purchase of the Tasmanian mill by ASH managers but defended the government’s forest policy, which will lead to a phasing out of native forest harvesting between 2024 and 2030.

“This government is delivering a planned transition that deals with the realities of declining ­native timber availability in Victoria,” she said.

Mr Hurley said the proposed purchase of Artec’s Western Junction mill would be by a company he founded with Mr Jones for that purpose.

The deal would be at arm’s length from ASH, he said.

“Yes, we will sell some timber to ASH but we will also be selling timber to some of the existing Artec customers as well,” he said.

He said the Victorian government had nothing to do with management of ASH and no link to Western Junction Sawmill, which company records suggest was set up with $2. 

If the purchase went ahead, Western Junction would continue to take low-grade logs from Tasmanian native forests but longer term would look to invest in processing plantation timber, he said.

The Tasmanian Forest Products Association said the purchase showed the folly of the Victorian and Western Australian governments ending native forest logging.

“What governments like Victoria are clearly finding, and WA will find, is that demand for the world’s most environmentally ­responsible building material doesn’t stop due to an ideological decision to stop native forestry,” said association chief executive Nick Steel.

An Artec representative said the company’s Western Junction mill had “not yet” been sold and hung up when asked if it was being sold to ASH.

The directors of ASH holding company Heyfield ASH Holdings include Greg L’Estrange, who was managing director of Tasmanian native forest logger Gunns when it collapsed in 2012.