Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Gippsland East electorate

Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (14:48): (1012) My constituency question is to the Minister for Environment, and the information that I am seeking is: what is being done to guarantee affordable domestic firewood supply this winter? I have raised this three times in the past 18 months after the cessation of the timber industry, and while the domestic season is still open, there are many in our communities – the elderly, the frail, the disabled – who simply cannot collect their own. We barely had enough to get through last winter, and that came about as a shortage after the closure of the timber industry, because they provided a lot of the supply through their residual wood. One thing we should never be short of in East Gippsland is firewood, but this government seems to have managed it. They have brought in a structure where we are short of firewood. We are only a few months away from heading into winter again, and I want to know what the minister has done to ensure domestic firewood supply for our region.