Thursday, 2 May 2019

Timber industry

Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (17:55): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Regional Development, Jaclyn Symes. A government media release from 24 April quotes Minister Symes as saying:

We’re getting on with planting more than 500 hectares of new plantation forest this winter …

The 500 hectares she refers to is not new plantation acreage but is merely the replanting of land that was previously a privately run softwood pine plantation. There is no increase in plantation timber, only an increase in government spending. This replanting is going to cost taxpayers $110 million.

Why are the taxpayers footing the bill for this instead of private investors? Why is the government getting back into the timber industry? Perhaps it is because they have driven out private business. The firm that had the plantation sought to renew the lease but failed to come to commercially viable terms with the Treasury. What efforts did the government make to secure this lease or to secure a lease with another business?

In the same press release the minister also claims that the new timber allocation order provides certainty for the timber industry. If the minister was actually concerned about providing certainty, why was the timber allocation order nine months overdue, and why does it only provide information for one year instead of the usual five? The only certainty this government is providing is the destruction of the timber industry. Unbelievably these two inclusions are supposed to be the spoonful of sugar in an otherwise bitter announcement. In addition to their $110 million expense and this nine-month-late allocation, the timber industry will face a reduction of 5000 hectares in available logging area. There are 7 800 000 hectares of native forest in Victoria. VicForests harvests less than 4000 hectares of this each year. At that rate, with absolutely no regrowth at all, it would take 2000 years to log Victoria’s forests.

For those of you who are unaware, timber is a renewable resource—it grows back. A timber industry provides increased sequestration of carbon dioxide, helping us to fight the climate emergency. Instead of destroying regional Victoria’s industries and communities, the minister should be letting them thrive. Victorian forests are not in danger, but the livelihoods of Victorian timber workers are. I call upon the minister to reverse these attacks on the Victorian logging industry.