James Merlino
For a small town few Victorians had probably heard of six months ago, Heyfield is fuelling a hell of a political story. And for a town sitting in a safe conservative seat, it could potentially cause major ructions in the most marginal of urban electorates. Source: Herald Sun
It is, of course, not Heyfield’s choice to be the star actor in a political drama. The town is struggling under the uncertainty of whether its major employer and economic engine room, Australian Sustainable Hardwoods’ timber mill, will close from September.
If that happens 250 direct jobs will go, with another 7000 or so in downstream industries under threat.
At the heart of the issue is the Victorian Government’s decision that there is not the timber available the mill owners say they need to stay viable — and open. And the reason for this dwindling supply is the scarcity — a hotly contested notion — of the endangered Leadbeater’s possum in the timber region that supplies Heyfield.
The Premier’s concern over the issue must be mounting. The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union has taken over the political campaign from the mill owner and is going hard to save the jobs.
Politically speaking, for a Labor Government to have the CFMEU mount a campaign against it would give Andrews the same feeling you’d have if the Hells Angels pulled up outside your place.
The union has made 150,000 automated phone calls this week on the issue in three outer suburban seats — Mordialloc, Narre Warren and Monbulk, the latter held by Deputy Premier James Merlino.
It is a campaign likely to gain traction in those seats, with the general view of the environment in the outer suburbs more closely aligned to rural Victoria than the inner city.
Tossing jobs aside and killing a small community based on a debatable possum population would not play well in the outer suburbs.
Then there is Jane Garrett. Ms Garrett, whose name is now code for the ugliness of the CFA volunteer issue after losing her ministry, is the first — and possibly still the only — Labor MP to sign a CFMEU pledge to support the bid to maintain the Heyfield jobs.
The irony of an inner-city Labor MP whose seat is certain to be targeted by the Greens next year going out on a limb for timber workers is not lost on the union: “All the speculation about inaction from the government at risk of losing votes to the Greens (over forestry) and the person who is most vulnerable and she’s signed up first,” CFMEU forestry secretary Frank Vari said.
Keeping Andrews’ head above water on this issue is the reluctance of federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg to order a review of how the Leadbeater’s possum population is calculated.
This is despite a request by Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce for him to “review the threatened species status of the Leadbeater’s possum”.
But Joyce won’t have to face an unhappy inner-city electorate come election time, as Frydenberg may well do if he is seen to be on the side of logging.
Heyfield is becoming a political millstone Andrews didn’t count on. Despite it appearing inevitable local logging would cease at some stage, the ferocity of opposition when reality hit has surprised many.
The Premier may not last the 3000 days in office to qualify for a bronze bust outside Treasury Place when his time is up. But I suspect someone from Heyfield would be happy to whip out a chainsaw to carve one from timber when that time does come.
