Up to 75 staff at the Forest Products Commission in West Australia are to be offered voluntary redundancies as part of a restructure plan, following big losses at the forestry agency. Forestry Minister Terry Redman said most of the staff cuts would occur over the next two years, and would bring the organisation back to a sound financial position.
He said the Government had allocated funds for voluntary redundancies for FPC staff.
The commission’s offices will also close and staff will move into Department of Agriculture and Food offices to save on accommodation and administrative costs.
The Minister blamed the previous Labor government for the FPC’s dire financial position.
“As a consequence the commission was allowed to become reliant on unsustainable borrowings and Federal Government grants that have since ended.
“That has meant that instead of returning a dividend to the Government, the commission has posted consecutive losses over the past two years.”
The Minister said the main problem was the new plantation segment of the commission’s business, not the native forest segment.
“In a program jointly funded by the Federal Government, the FPC spent $64million of taxpayer funds on strategic tree farming (STF) in lower rainfall areas. That funding has now ended.
“In order to meet STF planting targets, the State Government would need to invest something like $40 million every year for the next 20 years, and that is clearly an unacceptable drain on taxpayer resources.”
Under the restructure, the FPC will stop investing in lower rainfall plantation development and focus on its core business of native hardwoods, mature pine plantations and sandalwood.
“Despite the changes, I can assure those who have contracts with FPC – be they customers, sharefarmers or service contractors – that contracts will be honoured,” Redman said.
“I acknowledge this has been an unsettling time for FPC staff, and there is still a way to go yet,” he said. “However, I am firm in my resolve that these steps are necessary and I am confident this restructure will allow the FPC to continue to play an integral role in a viable and sustainable forestry industry in Western Australia.”
While the Minister paints a somewhat rosey picture for the future, this is not how others see it.
Timber Communities Association (TCA) WA coordinator Letisha CampbellI said the flow-on from this announcement was firstly job losses in and around Manjimup, the seed centre etc. “A sad day for the plantation industry in that the only plantations apart from pine now likely to be planted will be for chip so the opportunity to ever have some type of seem less transition to a sustainable mix of hardwood plantation and native industry will be so far off into the future if at all.
“I think it is unreasonable to assume that the private sector will ever invest the capital into a resource in the West with such a long rotation, i personally believe that although the example that FPC has produced has not been successful/profitable (whichever fits) doesn’t mean that it cant be.
“I believe that, in time, that if Australia wants to be environmentally responsible and look after its own needs with regards to timber supply, then the Government will have to revisit its involvement in growing trees.
“Clearly the pressure from the greens to get out of native forests is going to continue and depending on what happens in Tassie, probably increase. Australians have to ask themselves what they are going to do to continue to be truly environmentally responsible, use more timber and at the same time not depend on the rest of the world for our needs/wants.
“The money already poured into these projects by FPC seems to me to be entirely wasted if the projects are now to be mothballed,” said Letisha.
