Forest Products Industry

Victoria’s $1.5 billion forestry transition has ended with a stark warning for every timber town in New South Wales and Tasmania – closing an industry is easy, rebuilding the communities left behind is another matter entirely. Source: Timberbiz Forest and Wood Communities Australia is warning that the closure of Victoria’s forestry transition program should sound an alarm for timber communities in New South Wales and Tasmania, after the scheme wound up without delivering the replacement economy regional towns were promised. “Victoria is the case study every government should be forced to read before making another decision about native forestry,” said Steve Dobbyns BSc (Forestry), Chairman of Forest and Wood Communities Australia. “Politicians told timber workers and regional towns they would be looked after. They promised transition, new industries, new jobs and a stronger future. What many communities got instead was uncertainty, hollowed-out businesses and managed decline. “That is not a transition. That is an industry shutdown dressed up in softer language.” The program closed on the final day of the financial year, more than two and a half years after Victoria shut its native forests to harvesting. Of the $1.5 billion the state committed, only $320 million was allocated through the Forestry Transition Program itself to support affected workers, businesses and communities. The results are stark. A Victorian Auditor-General’s report found the department running the program could not demonstrate that displaced workers were better off. The share of displaced workers in full-time employment fell from around 80% before the closure to around 60% after it, while part-time, casual and contract work increased. Headline job figures of 137 roles created and 436 retained were not supported by reliable evidence, and the Auditor-General found the department could not adequately show whether the program was delivering sustainable employment or business viability beyond 2026. Across Gippsland, employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing has reportedly fallen to 5%, down from 12% five years ago. On the ground, the promised replacement economy has not arrived. Mills at Swifts Creek and Yarram have closed in the past eight months, downstream businesses across Noojee, Powelltown and Orbost are thinning, and towns once built on timber are now being told to stake their future on tourism. “The lesson from Victoria is brutally simple: once the timber industry is gone, the jobs, skills, contractors, mills and supply chains do not magically reappear,” Mr Dobbyns said. “You cannot replace a working production economy with glossy transition brochures, grant rounds and vague promises about tourism. Timber towns are not museum exhibits. They are working communities built around real industries, real skills and real families. “NSW and Tasmania need to look very carefully at what happened in Victoria, because this is exactly what is coming for them if governments keep making forestry policy to appease activists rather than protect regional communities.” The program’s closing months were also dogged by allegations that transition money followed the logs interstate, with Tasmanian native timber shipped across Bass Strait for processing in Victorian mills. The Victorian Greens have since proposed laws to make it illegal for Victorian mills to process native forest timber sourced from anywhere in Australia. Forest and Wood Communities Australia says that episode proves a basic truth that governments continue to ignore – ending an industry in one state does not end the demand for timber. It simply moves the harvest, the jobs, the scrutiny and the environmental responsibility somewhere else. “Victoria banned its own public native forestry and then still needed timber,” Mr Dobbyns said. “That should surprise no one. Homes still need to be built. Floors, stairs, furniture, appearance-grade hardwoods and durable timber products still need to come from somewhere. “If governments shut down responsible Australian supply, they do not save a single plank of demand. They either shift that demand to Tasmania, New South Wales, private land or imports from countries with weaker standards. That is not environmental leadership. It is political outsourcing.” Forest and Wood Communities Australia says the Victorian experience is not a one-off. It is a documented warning. With native forestry under sustained political, legal and regulatory pressure in New South Wales and Tasmania, FWCA says governments must now answer a simple question: do they have a credible plan to protect timber workers and regional economies, or are they prepared to repeat a $1.5 billion transition that left communities worse off? “Before any government even thinks about shutting down more native forestry, it must explain what happens to the workers, the contractors, the mills, the towns and the timber supply,” Mr Dobbyns said. “Victoria spent $1.5 billion and still could not prove it had delivered secure, sustainable futures for displaced workers. That should stop decision-makers in their tracks. “NSW and Tasmania should not be next in line for the same failed experiment.”

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NSW Nationals Leader and Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh, Member for Clarence Richie Williamson and Member for Oxley Michael Kemp have slammed the Minns Labor Government’s decision to cut jobs at Forestry Corporation on the North Coast. Source: Timberbiz The MPs have said staff have been informed via email that dozens of jobs, estimated at around 50, including more than 30 in Coffs Harbour alone, are to be cut at a time when regional communities and local economies are already under enormous pressure. These jobs are to be a mix of management, office and field roles. According to an ABC report, a NSW government spokesperson said in a statement that it was working to move affected Forestry Corporation staff to suitable roles in the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It said the creation of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) would add 100 new roles. “Before the election Chris Minns and Labor promised to help regional workers transition out of forestry. Today, they’re putting politics over people and science,” the MPs said. Critics of the GKNP have included the Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union, which has publicly declared the carbon method funding the Great Koala National Park should be dumped because it rewards locking forests away instead of managing them. “There shouldn’t be an incentive for future governments to lock up land simply to fill government coffers without solid scientific rationale,” the MPs said in a statement. “With timber harvesting already halted under the moratorium, as well as this current round of job cuts, it’s unclear how the government will be able to claim any carbon credits for this project. “The NSW timber industry is among the most sustainable in the world, operating under some of the highest environmental standards while providing a resource that is desperately needed during a housing crisis. “Chris Minns said it himself – he does not understand regional communities. And he never will. “Today is yet another sad day for the hardworking men and women at Forestry Corporation who are paying the price for Labor’s budget mismanagement.”  

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