Timber secret: Premier Daniel Andrews opted to end native forest logging before 2018 election

Premier Daniel Andrews signed off on phasing out native forest timber harvesting in April 2018 but waited until after the election before making it public. See the FoI document.

Premier Daniel Andrews waited until November 6, 2019 to announce “all logging in native forests across the state was to stop by 2030. Picture : Nicki Connolly

Premier Daniel Andrews signed off on phasing out native forest timber harvesting in Victoria way back in April 2018, but waited until 12 months after the November 24 State Election before making his government’s intentions public.

Freedom of Information documents just released to Wellington Shire Council, after more than two years of requests and appeals, showed the Premier opted for the 2030 harvesting phase out in a two-page briefing paper he signed on April 9, 2018, titled Native Forestry industry Transition Approach.

The briefing paper asked Mr Andrews to sign off on his own Department of Premier and Cabinet “leading further whole-of-government analysis and planning on one or two options of the following four future timber supply scenarios”:

OPTION 1: Exit old growth logging, continue regrowth logging

OPTION 2: Exit native forest harvesting by 2035

OPTION 3: Exit native forest harvesting by 2030

OPTION 4: Exit native forest harvesting by 2024

The Premier ticked off on the 2030 option and no other, including a handwritten note that said: “Negotiations should be expedited – not delayed”.

Native Forestry Transition Approach signed by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on March 29, 2018.

The Premier then waited until November 6, 2019, to announce “all logging in native forests across the state (is) to stop by 2030”.

One key industry source, with access to the inner workings of the Labor Party, said the Andrews regime was fearful of an electoral backlash in the Morwell electorate, which it was trying to take from the former Nationals MP Russell North, who at the time held the seat on a margin of just 1.8 per cent.

At the time the Latrobe Valley was already suffering from the effects of the Hazelwood power station closure, with the 750 direct and 300 indirect job losses.

Nationals Leader Peter Walsh said “if they’d agreed to it (phase out), they should have taken it to the election and been honest on what they intended to do”.

Interestingly other documents released under FoI to Wellington Shire showed that after the election the Government commissioned Quantum Market Research to gauge the views of 12 focus groups on native forest harvesting, across key battleground electorates – Melbourne, Narre Warren, Geelong, Shepparton, Dandenong Ranges and Maryborough (Ripon), with participants offered $100 prepaid EFTPOS cards to attend.

The Government also used Victorian taxpayers’ funds to commission Quantum for an online survey of 220 Melbourne residents, plus another 200 selected from the marginal seat of South Barwon, plus Hume, the Grampians and Loddon-Mallee areas.

A Government spokesman said “the Victorian Forestry Plan has always been about transitioning the native forest industry to a range of new opportunities by 2030, and setting up a strong plantation-based sector for decades to come” and the March 2018 brief did not recommend the adoption of a policy by the Victorian Government.”