Forest contractors are calling on government to alter an industry exit package so businesses can buy back into plantation work. Source: ABC Rural
The Australian Forest Contractors Association wants to negotiate changes so Tasmanian Forestry Agreement business buyouts can be reversed.
Chief executive Colin McCulloch said there’s been a dramatic upturn in activity in Australia as new operators take on failed Managed Investment Scheme plantations.
He said that it’s stupid that scores of harvest and haulage businesses are locked out, as orders for Australian woodchips treble.
“Certainly China, Japan seem to have stabilised through their economic crisis, and in Thailand, the opportunities are enormous,” he said.
“We are very short on what you might call skilled businesses to take up the opportunities that are upon us now.
“We are missing boatloads of wood.
“We are not fulfilling our contractual arrangements on sawn timber.
“To me, that’s not a regional issue, it’s a national issue.
“That’s taxes not being paid, and I think that’s something that the government can see with our participation in the resources sector, that the future is upon us.
“We are really trying to get hard evidence to support our push into industry promotion for jobs.
“We are currently talking to state and federal governments about the necessity to get businesses to employ.
“The industry buyout program in Tasmania was focused initially on native forests.
“While we have a shortage of native forest ability in Tasmania and other parts of Australia, the extreme focus is around plantation and the total lack of businesses that actually understand what is needed.
“So long as it’s plantation-focused, I think it’s just stupid to actually look over a fellow that ran a successful business around native forest.
“Now, I can understand that would create some tension around the place. “I think it needs some mature discussion, but I don’t see it as an impossibility.
“I see it as ‘OK, we’ve had an upswing, what do we do now?’.
“I’d suggest to you that pretty quickly the conversation would turn around to a buy-in program.
“It might be that a business will say ‘OK, I’ll set up a structure to pay back an amount of what I was paid out’. I see that as common sense.
“I don’t see that as anything too big to get over, or an impediment to the taxpayer.
“At the end of the day, if you’re looking at tripling the output, we can’t do it with the existing businesses.”
