Warren Fenner, Andy Westaway and Rob Brunt EG Timber
The Andrews Government’s failure to end the legal lockup of Victoria’s native forests looks set to drive another wave of job losses through regional communities, from harvest and haulage contractors to timber mill workers. Sources: Weekly Times, Timberbiz
Maryvale paper mill has already laid off 155 white paper workers, with another 45 to 50 trades, administration staff and managers set to go.
But the Supreme Court order that led to the lockup of Victoria’s native forests last November has left 25 of the state’s 27 harvest and haulage contracting crews without work and a thousand timber mill workers in limbo.
The State Government refusal to close loopholes in the Timber Code of Practice that has enabled activists to take out court injunctions to stop legal timber harvesting operations and starve the mill of its timber supply.
East Gippsland MWM Logging contractor Andy Westaway’s crew has shrunk from 13 to three.
“It’s myself and two workers cleaning up gear and maintaining stuff,” Mr Westaway said. “VicForests said they might have some sort of pine job, which we’ve put in for. But it’s a slow process and the government is sitting on its hands, not doing a thing.”
The last two active harvest crews, who are salvaging storm-blown timber from the Wombat Forest, say they suffered vandalism of their machinery and protests from locals, who have walked onto the site, disrupted work and locked themselves onto machinery.
The Victorian Forest Products Association warns a huge proportion of the state’s 20 mills have already registered expressions of interest to receive opt-out payments from the Andrews Government.
Australian Sustainable Hardwoods chief executive Vince Hurley said the mill was importing green-cut timber from Tasmania and American oak but had no means of offsetting the 60% of Victorian ash that VicForests was supplying up until last year.
Asked what ASH could do in the wake of Victorian supplies drying up, he said: “If it’s zero from now on, then we’re going to have to lose jobs.”
Australian Forest Contractors Association general manager Carlie Porteous said that as recently as Tuesday it had been talking to the State Government about ways to fix the Timber Code of Practice and avoid continual third-party litigation against VicForests.
“We are hopeful for a positive outcome at the March appeal, but it will serve only as a bandaid unless the code is sorted,” Ms Porteous said.
VicForests has lodged an appeal with the full bench of the Supreme Court to be heard on 23 March, challenging Justice Melinda Richards’ November ruling in the Kinglake Friends of the Forest and Environment East Gippsland case against it.
Justice Richards’ ruling has forced VicForests to resurvey most of its coupes and slash the viability of harvesting others, to protect greater glider possums, which – like the ruling on the appeal – could take months.
“Fires are currently burning out of control near Flowerdale in Victoria, a stark reminder of how much we need these contractors’ skills during fire season,” Ms Porteous said.
“Businesses, including forest managers in other states are willing to throw resources at these contractors for their skills.”
It is believed that during the 2019-2020 bushfire season around 30 forest contractor businesses provided critical fire assistance including equipment and manpower.
The availability of these resources would clearly be threatened by any reduction in the number of contractors due to the end of native timber harvesting.
Meanwhile VicForests is forced to compensate contractors and mills for timber it cannot supply, with the state-owned enterprise’s 2021-22 loss of $54 million set to blow out to three or more times that amount.
Industry sources say the cost of paying out harvest contractors alone is about $90 million.
