New timber laws: fines of up to $21,000 for workers

Timber contractors could be forced to hand over their diaries and other documents under a Bill before Parliament.

DLogging contractors feel like they’re being persecuted, not only by the activists, but now by the government. Photo: DANNIKA BONSER

Victoria’s embattled native forest logging contractors face fines of up to $21,000 for failing to strictly comply with a Code of Practice for Timber Harvesting that is still under review.

The Victorian Government is trying to ram its Forests Legislation Amendment (Compliance and Enforcement) Bill through Parliament this week, which grants its departmental officers the right to halt harvesting and the Office of the Conservation Regulator the power to demand contractors hand over diaries and documents, to check for breaches of the code.

But the Opposition has pointed out the government should halt the Bill until it completes its code review, otherwise the entire timber industry would be left in the dark over what they can and cannot do.

“This has left timber workers in an untenable situation and they will have no idea whether they will be breaking the law or not,” Opposition environment spokeswoman Bridget Vallance said.

“It makes no sense to ram through these new unfair laws that target timber workers when the timber industry doesn’t even know what requirements will be contained in the new Code of Practice.”

The beleaguered timber industry fears the new laws will encourage even more anti-logging activists to harass and dob in harvest and haulage contractors for the most minor code breaches, from dropping a tree into a buffer zone to harvesting just outside a designated coupe.

Forest and Wood Communities Australia managing director Justin Law said timber workers were already suffering the effects of years of legal challenges, activists shutting down coupes and the Victorian Governments’ decision to phase out native forest logging by 2030.

“Contractors feel like they’re being persecuted, not only by the activists, but now by the government,” Mr Law said.

When Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio introduced the Bill to the Lower House in November 2019, she said it would improve the regulation of timber harvesting by prohibiting “any person from undertaking timber harvesting operations in state forest, unless they are undertaken in accordance with a relevant licence, permit, allocation order or other authorisation”, which is what Victorians expected.

At the time Opposition environment spokesman David Morris raised some concerns telling Parliament: “at this point the opposition will not be opposing the bill in the Legislative Assembly, but we are reserving our position”.