Shae’s Nob State Forest
Last month, 15 timber harvesting operations were suspended by the NSW timber industry controller Forestry Corporation. The Environment Protection Authority changed the habitat protection rules for the endangered greater gliders, making timber harvesting illegal.
Environmental activists have deployed a Victorian-style lawfare in an effort to shut down native timber production. But no amount of marsupial propaganda masks the human toll inflicted by the government’s betrayal.
Despite the NSW timber industry having more teeth than its Victorian counterparts and some sharp operators like ex-Labor Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, there is limited political interest in the arguments for sustainable management, homes, and sovereign capacity.
Activist environmentalists are cunning; having crippled the Victorian timber industry, they have worked out a successful model and are now replicating it in NSW. They take legal action against government bodies that trigger ‘stop work’ orders. This forces businesses to suffer death by attrition – court actions take years to resolve, and even if they are successful, few businesses are left, and fewer financial institutions are willing to back them.
Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty barely rated a whimper when responding to the crisis, stating that her government was ‘committed to delivering the right balance between protecting the environment and sustaining our state forests’. As to what that means, who knows?
The Australian Forestry Products Association CEO James Jooste called for an intervention into dispute resolution three months ago, likely knowing full well the impact of the strategy.
‘We need a better resolution-dispute mechanism so we’re not spending six months out of our forests where we have no environmental outcomes and no productive outcomes,’ he said.
This fell on deaf ears, with neither the Minister for Agriculture, Tara Moriarty, nor the Minister for Natural Resources, Courtney Houssos, offering a solution. A surprising betrayal considering Minister Houssos’ commitment prior to the NSW election, where she promised:
‘No net job losses and an independent skills audit to guide investment and incentives and encourage new economic opportunities in the forestry industry.’
The truth is Labor cannot be trusted on forestry. The party has been overrun by inner-city greens, while the political hard-heads of old Labor are too weak to stand up for their traditional base.
This should not be the story for native forestry. The government should ensure that environmental activists cannot abuse the court process. If regulations need to change, then do so in a consultative manner over a period of time. Anything less is a calculated betrayal.
If Labor wants to close the book on native forestry, they should do so with an industry transition over decades, not weeks. Chile and Uruguay fought deforestation by investing in hardwood plantations; today, they have a thriving industry exporting Australian timber species, Eucalyptus Grandis, to the world. The question NSW Labor should be asking is, why can’t we?
Political parties on the centre-left have become unreliable for industry, because the unions which founded them are no longer run by workers. And as a result, Green morality has defined many industries as immoral and destructive.
Blaming environmental activists for the final nail in the industry’s coffin is easy, but frankly, the timber industry helped build the box. Over the past decade, industry groups and unions ignored the signposts. Emotive and targeted messaging changed public opinion against the forestry industry, such that ultimately, dead koalas became more powerful than thousands of jobs and millions of homes.
If the industry wants to survive in Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania, it must make an ongoing effort to change its reputation. This requires sharp and consistent communication to make the case for the importance of timber products to our economy, a demonstration of genuine outcome-driven conservation, and a long-term plan for industry transition.
Several industry organisations are already seeing the light on this, but without the long-term bipartisan backing of government, it may all be too little too late.
Marcus Bastiaan is a director at Specialty Doors
Source:
Forestry Corporation has suspended 15 harvesting operations
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/8654876/timber-industry-bleeding-cash-as-shutdown-bites/
“committed to delivering the right balance between protecting the environment and sustaining our state forests”.
“We need a better resolution-dispute mechanism so we’re not spending six months out of our forests where we have no environmental outcomes and no productive outcomes,”
“That includes a commitment to no net job losses and an independent skills audit to guide investment and incentives and encourage new economic opportunities in the forestry industry,”
