Melina Bath and with Gippsland native timber industry employees
The Nationals Member for Eastern Victoria Melina Bath has unloaded on the Victorian Government on the anniversary of its native timber industry shutdown. Source: Timberbiz
“So, what has happened in the last year, since that time?” Ms Bath said. “Well, the government has, as an art form, shut its ears to the cries of the native timber industry.’’
Speaking in State Parliament, Ms Bath said the closure of the native timber industry will have a devastating impact on towns like Orbost, Heyfield, Powelltown, Benalla, Corryong and more.
“Indeed, it sticks in my neck when we hear from the government that they are going to transition workers and that they care.
“These people in this industry have been gutted by this decision. You can paint it any way you like, but that is the absolute truth.
“Some have left the industry already because they just cannot cope with the stress and the uncertainty, and many are wanting a direction that is different to this one.”
Ms Bath said the government’s decision to close the industry will increase the need for imported timber.
“Now, it is all very well and good to stand there and pontificate about how they are saving whatever it is that they think they are saving, but across the waters there will still be trees cut down in other areas, hardwood trees cut down in other nations that do not have the stringent oversight and high regulation that Victoria has, and those will be harvested and not necessarily replanted,” she said.
“We talk about deforestation. There is no deforestation in Victoria. It is harvested and regenerated, and that has been the model for many years and the model that should continue.”
Ms Bath said she had got to know many of the people that manufacture the products that help cut down and harvest those trees.
“I have listened to their concerns time and time again,” she said.
“Their mental state has been shattered, and it is so unfair. What has happened is that the government have put their hands over their ears and gone, ‘La, la’.” Ms Bath said she had asked Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes time and time again to meet with the East Gippsland harvesters.
“I gave her their numbers, and she refused, yet she puts up on Facebook the fact that she can have Zoom meetings now with a whole range of other people, yet she will not give them the courtesy.
“She is the minister in charge of forestry, and she has walked away. The government has locked them out of coups, and, as I said, there is uncertainty and mental anguish through this.”
Ms Bath also criticised the State Government’s announcement of a $2 million seedling nursery at Nowa Nowa.
“I endorse any seedling nursery, but the government says, ‘This will be the future of our transition’.
“Any tree planted from that nursery will not go into the ground until 2022 – by the time it is established – and any of those trees will not be ready for another 40, 50 or 60 years after that.
“So, it is rhetoric that gets into the heads and minds of certain Victorians, and they feel like they can sleep well at night,” she said.
“Well, many of my constituents cannot. Labor’s Victorian Forestry Plan is bogus, and a seedling nursery will not replace those 21,000 jobs that deliver $7 billion through this economy.
“Gippslanders do want secure permanent jobs, and yet even this nursery will only serve up a temporary solution. This is more smoke and mirrors.”
