Tuesday, 20 December 2022

Adjournment

Timber industry

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (19:22): (1) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Agriculture, and the action I seek is for the minister to take action to save the timber industry, particularly the timber jobs in Gippsland and around the state that are under threat at the moment. She can do that by making amendments to the timber code of practice to close loopholes in legal action that shut the timber industry down overnight as of a couple of weeks ago. The minister will be very aware that we currently have 200 jobs on the chopping block at Opal’s Maryvale mill, the single biggest private employer in the Latrobe Valley. I know my colleague the member for Morwell would like to raise this issue himself, but until he has spoken he is unable to do so in this place.

On behalf of the member for Morwell, me, a member for Eastern Victoria Region in the other place and the Shadow Minister for Agriculture, we need the Minister for Agriculture to act. We need it because we have currently got harvest and haul contractors who are out of work – they cannot do anything because of this legal action and because of the government’s failure to act. We have got workers at mills who are on the verge of being stood down because those mills have run out of timber, and we have got 200 jobs at Opal under threat because they have just about run out of timber. On 23 December they are expected to run out of native timber, and this is an absolute shame.

We know the government has a policy to shut down the timber industry by 2030. We do not like it, we oppose it strongly, and our position was strongly endorsed in those seats in Gippsland, including in Morwell where the Labor Party suffered a 9 per cent swing against it, in part I am sure because of the position of the government on the timber industry. But the government’s policy is 2030; it is not now, as is being enforced by the legal action through the courts. We need the government to step in. Workers and communities do not want compensation. They do not want payouts, and they do not want some sort of scheme to help them transition to a new future; they want their jobs. They want the jobs that the government said would be there while the transition occurs.

We will always oppose the shutting down of the native timber industry. It is bad for the environment because all that will happen is we will import more timber from overseas, from places that are less regulated. It is good for climate change – a native timber sector actually helps with carbon sequestration. So this is a disastrous situation. I plead with the government – I beg the minister – to take action. Forget what has happened in Northcote and Brunswick and everywhere else. The election is over. These are jobs on the chopping block right before Christmas, and we need the government to take action to save those jobs and give the timber industry and the workers in Gippsland some hope for the short term at the very least.