Labor guts timber towns to deliver Great Forest National Park

The Andrews Government is grinding down the timber industry prematurely to deliver a pre-election push to inner city voters, says Peter Hunt.

Jobs cut down: Timber workers are being pushed out of Victoria’s Central Highlands to make way for the Great Forest National Park. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

It’s almost a given that Premier Daniel Andrews will announce the formation of the Great Forest National Park in the lead-up to the November 26 state election.

For that to occur native forest logging of Victoria’s Central Highlands will have to end much earlier than the 2030 cessation of native forest timber harvesting announced by the Premier in 2019.

It’s clear the Labor Party is willing to kill off timber jobs and communities earlier than promised, so that it can win over wavering inner city voters with the promise of this great new park.

The Greens already hold Melbourne on a margin of 1.32 per cent, Brunswick by 0.57 per cent and Prahran, which they took from the Liberals with a 7.54 per cent margin.

Then there’s the electorate of Northcote, which Labor holds on 1.71 per cent margin, plus Richmond where sitting Labor MP Richard Wynne is retiring, which risks obliterating Labor’s 5.46 per cent hold on the seat.

Even the safe Labor seat of Preston could be at risk, after the party ousted sitting member Robin Scott to install Nathan Lambert as the Labor candidate, who just so happens to be the Department of Jobs Precincts and Regions forestry and climate change policy and regulation executive director.

Don’t be surprised if Mr Lambert and Northcote MP Kat Theophanous turn up at the launch of the GFN Park in a few months’ time.

To achieve this it appears Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and key Labor Party bureaucrats are quietly beavering away to keep the gate open for environment groups to mount legal cases against VicForests that are locking up coupes and strangling saw log supplies to the 2500 workers reliant on native forest hardwood.

As far back as September 23, 2019 Ms D’Ambrosio axed a series of reforms to the Code of Practice for Timber Production, which would have made it difficult for environment groups to take legal action against VicForests.

I acknowledge there are legitimate concerns around the draft reforms to the code of practice for timber production and how they fit together.
Listening to the community is important and that’s why I’ve decided to withdraw the current consultation.

— Lily D'Ambrosio MP (@LilyDAmbrosioMP) September 23, 2019

We also know Agriculture Ministers, responsible for forestry, have struggled to protect the timber industry from Labor’s own green machine.

In October 7, 2019 then Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes wrote to Corryong sawmill owner Graham Walker, reassuring him his mill and workers had a future, stating “it is the Victorian Government’s view that the careful management of Victoria’s State Forest can support the sustainable supply of resources as well as protection of biodiversity”.

Yet a month later Premier Daniel Andrews announced the timber industry would be phased out by 2030, with Ms Symes announcing native forest logging was now unsustainable.

Labor’s green machine has even told VicForests to back off recovering court-ordered costs from the My Environment group, as Agriculture Minister Mary-Anne Thomas office finally admitted last month.

Then last week Labor and its loyal crossbenchers blocked the Coalition from further amending a bill before parliament to end third-party legal action against VicForests.

What more evidence do we need?

Peter Hunt is a senior journalist with The Weekly Times