The recent decision by Bunnings to refuse to sell native timber is ill timed and ill-considered and if you think the issue through, just plain wrong. It is also a wake up call for those that have been doing the same old thing year after year and expecting that facts alone will prevail. They won’t.
The timber industry is reeling from the announcement that native timber harvesting will cease in the very short term. This gives no time at all for the so called ‘Plantation Solution’ to grow to a level that would make up even a portion of timber lost through the end of native harvesting.
There are numerous issues with plantation hardwood, Mountain Ash in particular, but all species require one thing to be viable. Time! And in this case, they haven’t been given near enough.
The decision by Bunnings to help kill off a sustainable industry, along with all of the associated jobs, also illustrates the power that decision makers are handing over to activists. We really need to start to watch what they do and emulate their methods.
I see the activists all the time around Parliament House and some of them even try to talk to me, at least, they used to. They are also obviously getting into boardrooms and influencing managers in corporate Australia as they present their version of the truth there, which if not properly researched and considered will lead to decisions that really do not stand up to scrutiny.
When the facts are considered, the Native Timber Industry is one of the most sustainable and renewable industries around. Trees regrow and when the regrowth is managed, as it has been for decades, then the regrowth is usable again after 80 or so years. Environmentalists have now decided to call 80-year-old trees ‘old growth’ and the powers that be seem to be accepting this in spite of the facts of the situation. This is the power of activists.
Activists present us with a learning tool, and we need to learn quickly and learn well before it’s too late. We need to think outside the box, improvise and adapt to changing political, social and corporate landscapes. We need to craft our message in terms that make it easy for those who are undecided to make a decision based on facts rather than emotion.
We cannot hold onto the ways of the past and expect them to keep working when no one else is using the same tools and techniques. Environmental activists would never have gone to a major corporate 20 years ago to peddle their version of the ‘truth’ but now they do, and they do it very successfully. They have stepped up their game and we must too.
Illogical and undefendable actions such as this are the reason I got into politics. I realised that the way things have been done in the past haven’t worked and entering politics was the only way I could see to fight back. Entering politics is not the only way to make positive change but it does give me a way of trying to introduce a voice for common sense into a place not known for its common sense. Board rooms used to be a place for common sense, but now it seems an injection or reason and logic is needed.
If we want to save the Native Timber Industry, we must act now.
Jeff Bourman is an Australian politician. He is a Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party member of the Victorian Legislative Council, having represented Eastern Victoria Region since 2014.
