Timber industry
Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:11): (148) My question is for the Minister for Agriculture Gayle Tierney. Victoria’s last white paper mill at Maryvale announced their closure at the beginning of this year. They were one of the biggest users of native forest timber and pulp and therefore a key driver of native forest logging in Victoria. Now that this mill has closed it seems very obvious that the transition out of native forest logging needs to be brought forward to protect not only our forests but also our workers and communities, yet we have had almost no response from the government. If we are talking about revenue and a tough budget, independent costings show that bringing forward the transition would save the government hundreds of millions of dollars. Will the government bring forward the transition plan to start right now?
Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education, Minister for Agriculture) (12:12): I thank the member for the question. It is a question that has been put to me before in this house, and it is one that has taken a lot of resources of the government in terms of its decision-making and its deliberations. The fact of the matter is that we have always said, right from the beginning, that there would be a managed transition, and that plan, the timber plan, has been in place since 2019. This house also is aware that there has been significant legal action taken in terms of the logging of timber, and that has resulted in a number of decisions. In fact there is an appeal that is being worked through. It was heard on 23 March, but as yet there has not been a decision.
The primary purpose of this government in all of this very complex and difficult situation is to ensure that there is support for the workers, there is support for industry and there is support for timber communities. We have done that in all sorts of ways. There are support payments, there is an opt-out scheme and of course there is a timber community fund as well. All of those things are in place. We will continue to monitor the situation, and we will continue to look at the implications of court decisions that have taken place so far.
Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:14): My supplementary question is: is the Andrews government still covering or subsidising wages of workers at this mill and, if so, how long does it intend to continue doing this?
Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education, Minister for Agriculture) (12:14): I thank the member for her question. This is similar to what has occurred in the past. In terms of Maryvale, Maryvale has not closed. Part of its operation is closing, but it has not closed. We are in active negotiations with Opal in respect to its other operations. So let us get that fact out. The reality is that there will be some redundancies later this month, but in terms of the other part of their operations, in terms of cardboard et cetera, they continue to operate. I think that you need to also be very clear about and make a distinction between the Maryvale operations as such and of course the other parts of the timber industry, particularly the sawmills.