MAV backs inner city council’s call: End native forest harvesting early

A campaign by the Maribyrnong Council to call for an early phase out of native timber forestry has been successful.

Melbourne’s inner city councils have rammed through a resolution at the Municipal Association of Victoria’s conference calling for native forest timber harvesting to be phased out well before the state government’s 2030 deadline.

Under the MAV’s rules Melbourne councils get two votes each at the conference, compared to just one for per country council.

Before the power: Simon Crawford (centre), when campaigning for Maribyrnong Council, picking up litter along the river. Cr Crawford initiated the motion.

Yet despite this voting power imbalance regional councillors initially managed to win over enough of their city colleagues to block Maribyrnong Council’s motion for an early phase out – 49 votes for to 51 against. But Wellington Shire councillor Scott Rossetti, who led the country-council push against the motion, said a division was called immediately after Maribyrnong lost the vote, which led to the vote being flipped to 51 for to 49 against.

“A division requires the identification of voters,” Cr Rossetti said.

Maribyrnong Greens councillor Simon Crawford, who initiated the motion, said “we’ve declared a climate emergency, so we need as much native forest around the world as possible”.

Cr Crawford’s motion warned native timber forestry was “a practice which has severe environmental impacts, including threatening endangered species”.

But Cr Rossetti said no-one, including the state government, had provided scientific evidence justifying an end to native forestry in Victoria.

“Our council spent approximately $50,000 on FoI (freedom of Information) requests over a two-year period to find out the scientific and environmental basis of the phase-out decision.

“From the minimal relevant information received there was no mention of environmental concerns or data,” he said.

“So, at the moment, we have very little considered evidence that ending native forestry will result in better overall environmental outcomes but we do know that it will come at considerable cost – especially if brought forward as this motion seeks to do.”

Cr Rossetti said the loss of the native timber industry would create significant job losses in an industry that generates $1.4 billion in sales each year, of which $432 million went straight into regional Victoria.

“It employs 21,000 jobs across the state,” Mr Rossetti told the MAV Conference.

Given the motion has been passed the MAV is now obliged to lobby the Victorian government for an early phase out of the industry.

MAV president and Pyrenees Shire councillor David Clark said as it stands Melbourne’s 30 councils get two votes each at state conference, with eight major regional councils also getting two votes each, while the remaining 40 regional and rural councils get one vote each.

However he said that voting system would soon change, once new rules giving all councils one vote each were gazetted by the Government, which he hoped would occur before the state election on November 26.