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Don’t Tender Out Timber Harvest, Haulage: NationalsThe State Government should stop proposals to tender out harvest and haulage contracts in the timber industry, according to Eastern Region MP, Peter Hall. By The Nationals - 28th August 2007 - Back to News The Nationals’ MP believes changes to legislation proposed by the State Government will put at risk investment in the timber industry and therefore jobs and economic benefit.
"The Nationals think the government should review a decision to tender out operations within the harvest and haulage sector of the forest industries," Mr Hall said. "Instead it should roll over existing contracts that apply so that the people employed in that sector can have some certainty for their future."
Mr Hall said he feared the amended legislation would have the same effect as the decision in recent years to go to a tender system for timber resource.
Speaking in Parliament during debate on the legislation, Mr Hall said the ‘Our Forests Our Future’ program saw the cutback of some 30 per cent of resource available to the timber industry in Victoria.
"One of the ways that was achieved was to change the licensing conditions associated with sawmillers," he said. "Instead of having 15-year licences, which encouraged investment and best value-adding in the industry, that has now been largely dismantled, and we are down to a tendering system in which companies compete on the open market for resource availability.
"We have seen the fiasco that has caused and the inability for many of those involved in the industry to have continuity of resource supply. This has caused great uncertainty, which is not in the best interests of the timber industry itself and not in the best environmental interests of Victorians, because we are not seeing the investment required for best value-adding within that industry. Who would when the future is uncertain?"
Mr Hall said he was disappointed that the government, through its commercial forestry agency, VicForests, was about to embark upon a similar process with harvest and haulage contractors within the timber industry.
"Instead of employing harvest and haulage contractors to undertake forestry and haulage operations within the timber industry, VicForests intends from 1 July 2008 to enter into a new tendering process.
"People involved in harvest and haulage pay many hundreds of thousands of dollars for the machinery they have invested in – specialised harvesting equipment and specialised haulage equipment.
"We are talking easily half a million dollars and upwards with some of that equipment. If all this work is now going to be put out to tender, the people involved in the industry will not have the confidence to invest in the machinery and materials they need. This is a retrograde step. Many in the timber industry now have lost jobs. I think those who have elected to stay should be given some certainty."
Mr Hall said he despaired for the future of the timber industry in Australia, with the constant reductions in availability of resource.
"Indeed I wonder how and from where our rapacious appetite for timber products will be met in the future. Is this fine white paper that we see our bills printed on to come from Indonesia or Third World countries?
"That is where we are heading in this country at the moment, in that we are refusing to properly manage and meet our own needs from the resources we grow in this country. All of us need to have a serious look at how we are going to meet our future needs for timber and timber products in this state of Victoria."
He added that in East Gippsland, the timber industry is one of the most vital industries. He said a recent report and socioeconomic study by MBAC Consulting, to which the Government contributed, found that in the East Gippsland forest management area alone the timber industry provided 525 people with direct employment in harvesting and processing.
"If you add on the multiplier effect, then you are looking at 1200 jobs in the East Gippsland forest management area alone either directly or indirectly accounted for by the timber industry.
"I point out that 91.5 per cent -- a figure that comes from the report -- of old-growth forests in the East Gippsland forest management area is already protected in parks or reserves.
"If that other 8.5 per cent is excluded from the timber industry, there will be a loss of some 409 jobs in the area and an economic loss of $50 million to the area. We simply cannot afford further losses of our timber resource."
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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