Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Native forest logging

Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (19:17): (199) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is that the minister actually leave Melbourne and travel out to the Gippsland timber communities to meet with the families and operators who are set to lose their jobs thanks to the minister’s decision to close the industry. I actually do rise in sadness today that the native timber industry has been effectively shut down, and I know the member for Morwell, the member for Gippsland South and the member for Gippsland East will feel just as much sadness as I do. This was an industry that generated $24 billion a year, and I would have thought, with the state of the budget today, that the government would have done everything to support it and get its workers back working again. What is going to happen now is the $200 million package to transition them out of the industry will not be enough. In 2003, when the government shut down 30 per cent of the industry, they spent $200 million, so I do not see how in 2023 this is going to be substantial enough for these families to move on from a practice that they have been practising for over 100 years.

What is even more frustrating is the fact that native timber hardwood is one of the best forms to reduce carbon. It captures carbon. It is all around us in this chamber; everything you see is carbon captured from native timber. The government could have changed the code of practice; they could have saved this industry. My predecessor Gary Blackwood spoke about this many times in this chamber, and I am sure, Deputy Speaker, you were here when Gary was talking. It just beggars belief that because this government is beholden to the Greens they did not save this industry. We could have changed the code of practice, and we could have saved thousands of jobs today, thousands of families that are now going to be left out in the cold. My fear is now that in these smaller communities around regional Victoria people will have no reason to stay, and they will become ghost towns. So, Minister, will you meet with these families and communities face to face and explain your decision to shut down the native timber industry, potentially destroying these towns and families?