Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Motions

Firewood collection

Jeff BOURMAN (Eastern Victoria) (16:04): I move:

That this house:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Supreme Court’s decision to place injunctions on rural firewood collection by licensed community foresters has resulted in a surge in illegal firewood collection on public land;

(b) the collection of illegal firewood is in direct response to the need for people to use fires for cooking and heating, especially those who cannot afford alternative means;

(c) deadwood is the easiest wood to collect and is most likely to be a habitat tree for native animals;

(2) calls on the government to:

(a) explore solutions to the current lack of available firewood for collection to satisfy the need for cheap and efficient fuel whilst not placing habitats at undue risk;

(b) extend the current commercial firewood collection permits until an alternate system is made available to ensure continued firewood supply to older Victorians and people who are unable to collect their own firewood; and

(c) remove the domestic firewood collection seasonal restrictions.

This strangely came about from a call from a hunter that was quite upset that in his local area people were cutting down habitat trees. It may surprise people, but a lot of hunters are environmentalists. I looked into it a bit more – and this was way out west actually; it had nothing to do with my own area – and what was happening was that illegal firewood collection close to public roads was just going off tap. So with a little bit of work I found out why. It is because the current system has become so onerous. People were just resorting to illegal methods. Obviously when you are out in the middle of nowhere at some time during the middle of the day, there are very few people around to catch you. Now, there are fallen trees and there is this and that, but what came to my person’s attention was people taking down habitat trees for possums and various rosellas and things like that. The problem is you look at it, if you want the firewood, and the easiest one to cut, process and sell is one that is already dead and has already gone through the drying out process. So out come the chainsaws, down it goes and little thought is given to what is happening. As time goes on those habitat trees are getting further into the forest and harder and harder to find, and that is going to have a negative effect on a lot of the animals.

It is something that I think I have talked to from time to time, as we have been here, and that is what the firewood is used for. It is easy for us in town. It is easy for us on pretty good coin to say, ‘Oh well, people can use electricity’ – I mean, gas is on its way out, which is another story – but there are a lot of people who just cannot do that. There are a lot of people who for reasons of whether it is just being remote or being unable to afford it cannot tap into an alternative supply. They cannot afford to put a solar panel on their house or whatever it might be.

I have mentioned this before a couple of times. When we first came to Victoria, which was a long time ago, we went to live on a farm just outside a rural town. My dad was an air force pilot, so I had not seen poverty. I had lived overseas; I had seen, I guess, poverty in another country but I did not think poverty existed in our country. Well, my eyes were opened. People were working 12- , 14- ,16-hour days on a farm, and they were basically getting enough to pay the bills and barely enough to feed themselves and pay for what they could for their kids and things like that. So you had people with crappy old cars – excuse the language – and you had people with houses that were quite run down and unsafe. To their credit, the kids were always fed and looked after and at school. But there is poverty in Australia and it goes under the radar because of the way we measure it. A farm may have an income of a million bucks a year but if your expenses are $999,000, you make a dollar profit. It is still technically profitable, but you are not moving forward.

With the whole firewood thing, some people want it for the ambience. I do love an open fire, I love camping and I love the whole feel of it, but for some people it is not about ambience and not about cooking a steak over a fire, it is about heating themselves and it is about cooking. You know, in some of these places, even in central Victoria where I lived, it would get down to freezing overnight. It is mid-40s for a couple of months and then it is minus 1 or minus 2 degrees. So these people are not doing it just because they want to.

I remember when the firewood collection first started. The restrictions just grow more and more and more. I guess I can echo some of what Mr Limbrick said about how over-regulating something breeds illegal activity, and that is what is happening. The Supreme Court has not helped with some of the stuff it has done. No matter what your opinion is of the storm-damaged wood that is sitting there in I think it is the Bunyip State Park and could have been firewood, it is just going to sit there and go to waste now.

There are a couple of reasons why I came up with this, and that is pretty well where I am at. You can fine people for doing illegal stuff, but like most of these things the trick is to find that fine line between incentivising people to not do something and taking it to the point where they are just willing to take the risk. Frankly I think the current system is creating the problem. With regulated firewood collection – and that is fair – people will go to whatever area, whatever time. I do call on the government to remove the seasonal restrictions. If it is done properly, people will obey the laws, and that is what I am trying to get at. People will be able to collect their firewood from the places where it has the least effect and will not need to chop down habitat trees.

There was some concern about firewood and open and closed Coonara-type fires and the emissions they have. Again, it is all fine for people like us to say that, but when you have got a choice between going cold and not having hot food – and in some cases it really is that desperate – there need to be allowances made. Not everyone lives in the metro Melbourne area, not everyone has connection to an electricity grid and not everyone can afford solar, as I have said before.

There is still a cohort in Australia that I honestly did not think existed, and I still see them from time to time. We come across them in our travels. They are proud, they are hardworking, they are not on the dole and they do not want anything from anyone except a fair go – and in this case, heat. With the environmental damage that it is causing – it is a very targeted environmental damage – and the fiscal unfairness that this is creating, we are basically forcing this to happen. It is a law of unintended consequences. To be frank, I did not even think about it when this went through – I opposed the restrictions anyway just because of the people needing it for their wood – but the fact that the habitat trees were going to be the first line off never occurred to me and obviously never occurred to anyone else. You can put a fence around these things if you want, but someone is still going to come in and cut them down if they are the path of least resistance, the easiest ones to get.

So that is what I am trying to do. Why I am calling on the government to explore solutions is that obviously we control laws in here – it is the government’s job to get it through. I think we need to revisit this. We need to get the current commercial firewood collection permits extended until we find an alternative system. One of the things is that older Victorians are not able to just pick up a chainsaw and go out and do their own thing anymore. There still is the need for the commercial ones. Again, by making a system fairer and easier to abide by you get rid of the backyard operators. And of course supply and demand – if there is a small amount of firewood you can get, the price goes up. If you can increase the pool, the price will go down and therefore it becomes a bit fairer. That is kind of where this is coming from.

I want the government to take this seriously. It is something I have done, and I look forward to further conversations with them. I will be critical of the government – it has lacked, until recently, a very rural and regional focus, and these sorts of things have just gone through. I do not want wholesale destruction of forests. It needs to be done properly. It needs to be done in a way where maybe it has been harvested before. No-one wants to chop down old growth or anything like that. The long and the short of it is we need to look at it from a high level, not just from the point of people being cold and people worrying about the environment and also emissions. We need to look at it from the point of view that we must actually get a system that people can abide by.

I will just quickly recap before I sit down. This started I suppose because of the green warfare problem we have all got. I am going to stray into the forestry part here. Some of the injunctions that were being used were just patently unfair and part of what I see as a wider problem with not even the environmental movement but a very hardcore part of the people that have one view forward and that is it. Once that started to happen it kept on going, and then you got injunctions on collecting wood in places where was quite safe, practical and reasonable to take firewood. We are not talking about taking trees that are 4 metres wide; that is not very practical. We are talking about the smaller stuff – blowdown trees or whatever – where you take enough. If it is dead, you cut it up, as long it is not habitat tree, but if you have to take down some of the less old trees and have them dry for the year after, you do it.

In wrapping up, the government really should in my opinion just extend the commercial firewood collection permits and make an alternative system available that works for everyone. I mean, this is a motion in the house; it is not making legislation. It is bringing to people’s attention – the government’s attention – that we need to deal with this, and I commend my motion of course to the house.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (16:17): I rise today to speak on this motion and affirm that the government is taking this issue very seriously. We know many people around our state, especially in regional and rural areas, rely on firewood to stay warm during winter and to cook their food. That is why this government will continue to support the provision of firewood supply for regional Victorians.

From 1 September 2011 onwards Victorians have been able to collect domestic firewood at no cost and without a permit from specific firewood collection areas, or FCAs, during designated firewood collection seasons. The ability to access free domestic firewood from designated Victorian state forest collection areas administered by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, DEECA, is not affected by changes to the native timber industry.

While domestic firewood is free to collect from state forests in Victoria, there is a cost to make it available to the community, and this means domestic firewood needs to be managed responsibly. The Allan government aims to carefully manage access to firewood from public forests for domestic purposes in a fair and sustainable manner for all Victorians. Firewood is an unpredictable and limited resource, and demand will exceed supply in some areas of our state. Firewood collected during the spring and autumn collection season needs at least eight to 12 months to cure and be dry before use. Collection limits are in place to ensure there is enough firewood for people who rely on it as their only source of heating. Where domestic supply is low, priority access can be limited to particular community members, such as local residents, traditional owners and those who depend on firewood for heating. Therefore I cannot support this motion, which will destabilise this fragile balance.

Last spring collection season there were over 250 sites open across the state for domestic firewood collection, which is an increase from the previous collection seasons. Currently there are two domestic firewood collection seasons throughout the year. The first is from 1 March to 30 June and the second from 1 September to 30 November. Collection season lengths are legislated to keep Victorians who collect domestic firewood and those who live in surrounding communities safe. Collecting firewood with chainsaws in the summer months increases the risk of sparks starting a forest fire. Collecting firewood in the winter months is dangerous due to the slippery and sometimes muddy conditions of most collection areas at that time.

I would say to you that each Victorian is allocated a quota of 2 cubic metres per day to a maximum of 16 cubic metres per household per financial year. The rules for domestic firewood collection are contained in the Forests (Domestic Firewood) Regulations 2022 and Crown Land (Reserves) (Domestic Firewood) Regulations 2022. Firewood collection areas are selected and prepared in accordance with the firewood collection management framework. Their location and opening days are then advertised to the Victorian community. There are a total of 254 firewood collection areas throughout Victoria, ranging from Barwon to Port Phillip to the Grampians. Since we came to government in 2014 we have invested over $582 million in biodiversity, and this is the largest investment by a Victorian government ever. Compliance with firewood collection rules forms an important part of maintaining this biodiversity, because illegal collection can negatively affect forest health, wildlife habitat and public safety. We commend Victorians who comply with the collection limit of 2 cubic metres per person per day and a maximum of 16 cubic metres per household per financial year. The firewood strategy refresh was completed in late 2018 to improve the management of domestic firewood collection. As such, authorised officers regularly patrol parks, forests and reserves to promote compliance with firewood collection rules.

Permits support continued monitoring to ensure that relevant regional limits for how much domestic firewood a person can take are adhered to. Unlike the previous government, which removed the requirement for a permit to collect domestic firewood, the Allan Labor government remains committed to ensuring safe access to domestic firewood without unduly compromising forest health and wildlife habitat.

But that is not all – this government also provides a range of concession programs to support Victorians to buy the firewood they need, broadening support for Victorians in need. This is the non-mains energy concession. Victorian households that rely on non-mains energy, including firewood, as their only source of heating can apply for the non-mains energy concession, and there is an annual rebate of between $51 and $575. It is available depending on your energy bills. There is also the non-mains utility relief grant. This is for Victorians on low income with or without a concession card who rely on non-mains energy, including firewood, and have experienced unexpected financial hardship. They can apply for the non-mains utility relief grant, and that is for up to $650. Victorians can apply for the grant if they have an amount owing for a previous firewood purchase or indeed for their next purchase.

I understand that this motion is being made in response to a Supreme Court decision that impacts the native forestry sector. This government understands that the uncertainty brought about by legal proceedings has been challenging for forest produce licensees who have made a living from community forestry operations, and we continue to support this industry. All these licence-holders are eligible for the community forest support packages, but please let me be clear – the Supreme Court brought about an early end to community forestry, not the state government. VicForests’ decision to cease all community forestry operations by 5 February 2024, following the Supreme Court’s decision to extend indefinite injunctions against community forestry operations, was not a decision made by this government. The Supreme Court’s decision has made it impossible for VicForests to facilitate community forestry operations through the extensive survey requirements imposed. This motion calls for the government to extend the commercial firewood collection permits, and that really is not an option, as the Supreme Court decision would make the disregarding of this decision illegal. It would expose 50-odd small – two- to three-person, in many cases – family businesses to enormous legal risk. We will not expose everyday family businesses to millions of dollars in legal fees. It is simply unacceptable, and really it is no solution at all. We cannot stick our heads in the sand and ignore the fact that the settings have changed, and we are not in denial about the change in the legal environment. This government has moved to provide native forestry workers with certainty about their future.

However, it is important to keep this conversation in perspective as well. You see, based on the latest CSIRO data, VicForests, even when operating at full capacity, which it has been unable to do for some time, contributes around 2 per cent of Victoria’s annual firewood consumption of, extraordinarily, 1.6 million tonnes of firewood a year. This government will continue to work with forestry produce licence holders as they transition away from native timber operations, as we have continued to do with all impacted forestry workers. This government is not in the business of leaving workers behind and in limbo. We welcome the opportunity to continue to work with timber communities in identifying opportunities for more jobs and growth in sectors that will continue to drive a sustainable future for more Victorians. The Allan Labor government is committed to providing $1.2 billion in funding to continue delivering support to businesses, workers and communities that are affected by forestry transition.

As for future supply solutions, I would like to thank DEECA for working on solutions for future sources of supply. Future firewood supply will be supported through a range of pathways, including private native forestry operations, plantations and the by-product of DEECA land management activities, which are undertaken for forest health and fire risk reduction purposes. These avenues are unaffected by the decision to end commercial native timber harvesting in state forests, and I have spoken about that before. The Allan Labor government takes firewood supply very seriously. We have got a range of measures in place to support Victorians to get free access to firewood or to subsidise the cost of access. As outlined throughout my time in this contribution, the proposals put forward in this motion are simply really unworkable, and this government remains committed to the support it has provided to those at risk who rely on firewood while balancing the needs of environmental protection.

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:26): I thank Mr Bourman for bringing forward this motion, which is essentially about fire, one of humanity’s greatest technological achievements – the thing that helped us make food safe to eat, gave us light at night, kept away predators and even to this day keeps us warm. Yet again we are talking about black markets due to over-regulation.

A member interjected.

David LIMBRICK: Yes, we are. We have this crazy situation where even this technological achievement is becoming difficult because of the way that these forests are being managed. I would like to see people be able to get firewood, because especially out in Mr Bourman’s area, where my family lives, there are lots of people that still rely on firewood for their homes. I can concur with what Mr Bourman said: that many of them are low income. In fact I met a charity group at one point who were going around collecting and delivering firewood to older people, because older people cannot easily manage it themselves – it is a lot of work to collect wood and chop it and everything. Even my parents still have a wood stove, and it is a lot of work for older people to do that. They need to be able to have access to it, because many of them still, as was pointed out by Ms Watt, are off grid. Electricity when you are on a battery supply is not often suitable for heating, so a lot of them still use wood.

I hope that the government does look at what is going on here and comes up with some sort of sustainable solution, because it does appear that the current solution is not sustainable, and as Mr Bourman points out, people are going out and effectively we have got another black market set-up. I hope that there are not so many black markets in this state that we end up at a point where we have two guys sitting in prison, one telling his story about being in prison for selling a cherry vape and the other one for collecting firewood to keep warm. I hope we can get beyond that. I fully support Mr Bourman’s motion here to look at better solutions that are sustainable and allow people to collect wood, because for those of us living in the city it is very easy to forget that many people really do depend on this for their everyday life, and winter is coming.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:29): I am pleased to rise to make a contribution on Mr Bourman’s motion 287. I have been interested in listening to the debate so far. My reflection on the debate is that this is a supply and demand issue for those in need. As we heard from Mr Limbrick just then, my thoughts went to the basic right and dignity of keeping yourself warm in your own home – in your shelter – and also feeding yourself. For many Victorians – and overwhelmingly those Victorians are rural, remote and regional Victorians – a woodfired heater and a woodfired stove can still be the main source of their heating and cooking. Supply and demand – we can think about supply and demand in terms of other sources of energy and of electricity. If we believe the government, evil gas has got to be stamped out. We are not allowed to have gas in our homes anymore because of all the atrocious things it is, whereas we on this side understand that it can be used and continue to be used as a stable supply for peak electricity as we move to a low carbon economy. There is the importance of gas for food stocks and a whole range of other products as well, and there is supply and demand in terms of its importance in heating people’s homes.

The first part of Mr Bourman’s motion speaks about Supreme Court decisions to place injunctions on rural firewood collection. Well, it actually placed injunctions on VicForests coupes. There is a whole wealth of pain felt out in the industry about those Supreme Court injunctions. I will pick up one of Ms Watts’s comments. She said it was not their fault; it was the fault of the legal system – the Supreme Court. The Andrews Labor government would not lock up coupes and keep people out. Well, I know that my colleague Danny O’Brien, during the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, quizzed the Premier at the time, the Honourable Daniel Andrews. Daniel Andrews said, ‘Oh, there’s legal advice to say that we cannot –

Harriet Shing interjected.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): Order!

Melina BATH: I think I have the right to be heard in silence. You can have your turn when you are ready.

The Premier refused to provide that legal advice to show the Victorian population and those people who the government shut down that there was legal advice to say that you could not close those loopholes. We saw recent events in federal Parliament, where the timber industry is going to continue on. But this government was hell-bent on closing it, and closing it six years earlier, and the pain is rife through regional Victoria – no more so than in places like Orbost, where 45 per cent of the population is directly related to the native timber industry.

Let me read to the house something that has come from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It says that a well-managed forest system used as a resource for its benefits, including timber and firewood and fibre, offers the best mitigation pathway for climate change. This is something that the government has ignored, it is something that the Greens ignore and it is something that we Nationals and the Liberals understand all too well.

Part of the issue here is around lack of supply, as I have said, and that huge demand. There are different ways that you can access your firewood. Elderly people or people who do not have equipment or are at a disadvantage cannot go out and collect firewood from state parks and forests. They cannot avail themselves of that community firewood. What they need to do is go to a community forestry operator, who has in the past accessed that firewood through salvage at the end of a coupe or indeed harvest or has accessed, for example, windrow timber, which we have seen in the Wombat State Forest – that was a whole mess in its entirety as well – or go to commercial firewood operators. They would purchase it at a reduced rate – because of course it is a low-grade timber – from VicForests contractors and then saw it up and supply people all around the region.

One of my constituents, a local lady by the name of Joan Shinton, from Gippsland, has made some comments to me about the overriding costs now of actually purchasing firewood. She said it is getting up to the point of $400 for 1 metre to be delivered. Being on a very low budget and a very tight budget, she is going to have to make some decisions – she said in her comments to me – about whether she heats her home or whether she eats each week and pays the bills. Her other concern, and I think it is a very sincere and kind position to take, is if she then goes and seeks to purchase the lowest cost firewood, whether that is going to be sourced from illegal conduct or an illegal action.

That is a concern to all of us, because we do not want supply and demand to be pitched in such a way that there come rogue operators who enter our state parks and forests and take timber and take trees that are habitat trees or that do provide a habitat source or that are highly important. Clearly all trees or fallen wood can be habitat trees of some form, but you need to have a relative scale. In regard to Mr Bourman’s point (c):

deadwood is the easiest wood to collect –

okay –

and is most likely to be a habitat tree for native animals …

I think that is little bit loose in its commentary because indeed you can have brand new, virtually six-month-old timber that does not have holes and gnarls throughout and that actually would make excellent timber for firewood and may well not be a habitat tree, but I take his point. I think the point he was trying to make is that we do not want these illegal operators coming in and taking the easiest pickings and not only doing those illegal operations but indeed diminishing or putting stress on a habitat and native flora and fauna.

One of the things that I know my colleague the Shadow Minister for Agriculture Emma Kealy was very keen for us to have a discussion on in this place, and I thank Mr Bourman for including her comments or her additional pieces in this motion, was extending the current commercial firewood collection permits until an alternative system can be made. Again, it is supply and demand. We need to ensure that the elderly and the people that do not have the operations to be able to go and collect firewood have access to it.

The other thing that I often hear in my electorate is the fact that the firewood season is quite limited and that although there are two seasons, people feel like the areas are diminishing or the access points are diminishing for those people that can actually go out and collect their own firewood. So I put that on record. I understand that point (2)(c) – ‘remove the domestic firewood collection seasonal restrictions’ – could be, again, until something better could be put in place.

I would finally like to take up the interjection of Ms Shing, who said, ‘Would you bring it back? Would you bring it back? Would you bring it back?’ Well, indeed my understanding is that VicForests is about to be shut down by the Allan government. It is an organisation that was serving and supporting the government’s forestry industry. That is going to get closed down. Nostradamus could probably tell you that. So whatever it will look like, it cannot look like what it has in the past. It cannot look like what it has in the past because there will not be a VicForests. But we will always stand by our rural and regional communities and the jobs that they create – (Time expired)

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (16:39): I am delighted to stand here today in support of Mr Bourman’s motion. Numerous times last year I brought up this very subject of wood collection, and my constituents in Northern Victoria Region are screaming out for this. I myself actually live in a soldier settler’s home, which is the type of house that you see covering the majority of the northern Victorian regional areas. These are good little homes, but I kid you not, having three split systems going to try to keep us warm is nothing in comparison to a wood fire. That definitely keeps us much warmer. We have been seeing a lot of power outs also recently, and coming into the winter season, having access to firewood would make it much better for my constituents to keep warm and cook with. I myself have gone through many blackouts and relied on my wood heater.

I have been lucky enough to have access to private properties where I can collect wood. The thing is, the majority of these trees have fallen. They are not hollow; there is nothing living in them. If anything, I see one or two huntsmans scurry out, and they make their way to the next standing tree. When it comes to native wildlife, I do believe that there is plenty of wood and habitat for them that people do not collect as firewood. Nobody wants a green tree. We are after the ones that are on the ground that have been there for, say, 12 to 18 months. So I am happy to support this motion, and I hope to see it successful in the future.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:41): I also rise today to speak on the motion which has been put before this house by my colleague Mr Bourman. I note the contributions of colleagues from across the chamber, from Ms Watt in particular; an interesting contribution from Ms Bath, which I think was a bit more about the native timber industry than it was actually about the matter which we are here to speak about today but was still nevertheless very interesting, as Ms Bath’s contributions always are; and indeed from my colleague from across the aisle Mrs Tyrrell as well. I appreciated your contribution too.

The motion that we have before us today by Mr Bourman firstly notes that the Supreme Court’s decision to place injunctions on rural firewood collection by licensed community foresters has, in his eyes, resulted in a surge in illegal firewood collection on public land. The collection of illegal firewood is in direct response, he claims, to the need for people to use fires for cooking and heating. Deadwood is apparently the easiest wood to collect and is most likely to be a habitat tree for native animals, amongst other things. I do acknowledge Mr Bourman for bringing this matter before us today. It does correctly bring attention to the fact that many households in Victoria do rely on firewood, especially in regional and rural Victoria. Some indeed depend on it for heating and cooking. I do note, and I will go into this in a little bit, that the government does have a specific program which allows Victorians to collect firewood for that very purpose already.

My own experiences on this matter are not quite as extensive as perhaps some others, but growing up in outer metropolitan exurban pockets of Melbourne, certainly I have strong childhood memories of going to bring the firewood in from the woodshed. It was the job that I absolutely hated the most.

Harriet Shing interjected.

Michael GALEA: Ms Shing, I will take up your interjection. One of the reasons I hated it the most was because I do not particularly like huntsman spiders and woodsheds tend to attract them. So there were lots of gloves and lots of tentative cautious picking up of the firewood as I put it into the wheelbarrow to take it back to the house – not my strongest endeavour, bringing firewood in. I even had a go at chopping firewood. It was quite fun. I was not particularly good at it back at the age of 14, but I gave it a go nonetheless and enjoyed it. But definitely, if I am looking back to my teenage years, by far the chore that I hated the most was bringing firewood in. The children across regional and rural Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne who still do that have my sympathies as well.

But there are some people who, for reasons of ambience or cooking or heating or other reasons, relish the chance to collect their own firewood, and this is a government that allows them to do that under the framework of that initiative. Victorians can currently collect domestic firewood at no cost and without a permit from specific FCAs as they are known, firewood collection areas, during the designated firewood collection seasons. Whilst domestic firewood is free to collect from state forests in Victoria, there is of course a cost in making it available to the community, and this means that domestic firewood does need to be managed responsibly. The government aims to carefully balance the importance of our environment and the opportunity for people to have access to firewood through this strategy. As firewood is of course an unpredictable and finite resource, demand in some cases will of course exceed supply. The firewood collected during the spring and autumn collection seasons generally needs at least eight to 12 months to cure and be dry for use. One thing I do know from my childhood is that putting a wet log onto the fire is about as effective as – there is probably a very good analogy that I cannot think of at the moment.

A member interjected.

Michael GALEA: Unless you want to smoke ham. As I am rightly advised by the Minister for Water in front of me, if you do want to smoke a good ham, you should have some wet firewood, but if you want a nice, hot, strong fire, dry firewood is the way to go.

So where domestic firewood supply is low, priority access can be limited to particular community members, such as residents in the immediate vicinity, traditional owners and others who are particularly dependent on firewood for heating purposes. One of the cruel ironies of collecting firewood as a teenager too is that you are never collecting it on a nice, sunny spring day. It is always the miserable, foggy day; you can barely see 2 metres in front of you. There is a reason that you need that fire; it is absolutely bloody cold outside. And that is why, again, for many reasons I may even return to in the rest of my contribution today it was my most hated job as a child.

Under the current program you can only collect trees or parts of trees that are already on the ground. That means that you are not allowed to damage trees to gather firewood, to cut them down with a saw or an axe or to break off branches or damage the tree. For ecological and safety reasons this includes collecting firewood from dead trees in such a manner, and to protect animal habitat and ecosystems, you cannot collect from hollow trees or if more than half of the tree is covered with moss or fungi. The role that these trees play in the forest of course makes these provisions, in particular, vital.

Last spring season there were over 250 sites open across the state for domestic firewood collection, an increase from the previous collection season. There are two domestic firewood collection seasons throughout the year. To clarify, those are the autumn season, which runs from 1 March, which is only a few weeks away from us now, until 30 June, and the spring season, which runs from 1 September to 30 November. Each person is allocated a quota of 2 cubic metres per day to a maximum of 16 cubic metres per household per financial year.

The rules for domestic firewood collection are contained in the Forests (Domestic Firewood) 2022 and the Crown Land (Reserves) (Domestic Firewood) Regulations 2022. Those firewood collection areas, FCAs, are selected and prepared by the firewood collection management framework; their locations and opening dates are then advertised to the broader Victorian community. Compliance with firewood collection rules is vital, because illegal collection can negatively affect forest health, wildlife habitat and general public safety. Serious penalties do apply if you break the law regarding firewood collection, including fines of up to $8261 or up to one year’s imprisonment. Several methods are used to ensure compliance with this and other important laws relating to state forests, including video surveillance cameras to monitor state forests and conservation regulators conducting regular patrols of threat areas.

As I say, this is a program that has been fully supported by this government, by the former Andrews and now Allan Labor government, and we are committed to ensuring safe access to domestic firewood without unduly compromising forest health and wildlife habitat. Since 2014 this Labor government has invested over $582 million towards biodiversity. This is the most significant investment by a Victorian government in this space, ever.

Most people do of course comply with the collection limit of 2 cubic metres per person per day and that maximum, as I mentioned previously, of 16 cubic metres per financial year. Authorised officers regularly patrol parks, forests and reserves to promote compliance with these collection rules. The previous government removed the requirement for a permit to collect domestic firewood. Permits support continued monitoring to ensure community members stick to the relevant regional limit for how much domestic firewood someone can take. The firewood strategy refresh was completed in late 2018 to improve the management of domestic firewood collection. There are of course a number of concession programs and rebates in place ranging from $51 to $575 for people as required, such as the non-mains energy concession in that particular case.

There is more I could definitely talk about in terms of the Supreme Court’s decision which Mr Bourman refers to in his motion, and I would love the chance to do so. However, I am aware that my time is coming to a close. I am also aware that we are graced again with Mrs McArthur in the chamber. I am sure she has more than one or two things to say about this issue, and I join my colleagues in my fervent anticipation of what we might soon be hearing – hold onto the edge of your seats, people. I will conclude my remarks by acknowledging Mr Bourman for bringing this motion to us today. I will conclude my remarks there.

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:51): I apologise to Mr Galea that he gets me, not Mrs McArthur, but I rise to speak in support of Mr Bourman’s motion on Victorian firewood collection. Currently, domestic firewood collection from public land is only permitted in designated areas between 1 March and 30 June or between 1 September and 30 November. During these periods, like they said, you can collect a maximum of 2 cubic metres of firewood per day per person or a maximum of 16 cubic metres of firewood per household per financial year. Fallen trees without hollows can be collected. Outside of these times there is no option. This means if a tree has fallen on the side of a road, this cannot be collected for firewood, and if it is, the person collecting that can be faced with hefty fines. It does not matter if the individual needs wood for fuel. It does not matter if the tree has fallen, is dangerous and needs to be removed.

Bev McArthur: And a fire hazard as well.

Renee HEATH: And a fire hazard. It does not matter if the individual is struggling financially and cannot afford to heat their home.

The government website states that authorised officers are educating the public about rules and penalising thieves – they use the word ‘thieves’. Anyone caught breaking firewood collection rules can face on-the-spot fines of $740 under the Forests Act 1958 or a maximum penalty of $9246 or – wait for it – one year in jail if the matter is taken to court. It also states that last year the conservation regulator laid 625 charges and issued 85 infringement notices. It is absolutely unbelievable. Also, cases which result in the Magistrates’ Court can face convictions or fines and have chainsaws and trailers forfeited and destroyed. Imagine getting fined or going to jail for collecting firewood from fallen trees. This is a government overreach.

Over winter Victoria’s firewood shortage will get worse. It will not matter if there are trees that have fallen, Victorians will be forced to source timber from interstate. That seems ridiculous to me. It also seems outrageous that rules like these are being implemented in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis created by the Labor government because of its out-of-control spending and because of its mismanaged projects. Labor is making life tougher for Victorians. While the government claims it is doing all it can to deal with this cost-of-living crisis and to provide relief, it is restricting the collection of firewood from the very people who are in need of that relief. It is almost as if the government has forgotten about the very people it exists to serve.

Everyone in this chamber will be aware that today marks 15 years since the Black Saturday bushfires. It is time to stop and reflect on how we can all work together towards fuel reduction. Fuel reduction is a crucial safety measure. One of the horrible dangers during the Black Saturday bushfires was that roads became a deathtrap because of the amount of fuel on the roadsides. Allowing people to use fallen trees near roadsides as firewood can be a measure that protects against and during bushfires, and it benefits the individual at no cost at all to the government. The Liberals and the Nationals have repeatedly warned the state Labor government of the dire consequences that regional communities will suffer if firewood shortages are not addressed. Yet instead of heeding our advice, the government stood by last month when VicForests brought forward the end of the forestry operations. Many Victorian families in regional Victoria rely on firewood for heat and cooking, especially amid a worsening cost-of-living crisis. This cheap alternative keeps families warm, but if shortages are not addressed, I worry we will risk lives this winter.

These restrictions have led to illegal harvesting of firewood from parks and reserves and have also forced regional Victorians to pay for costly firewood from interstate. If anything, this debacle paints a clear picture of Labor’s inability to comprehend the consequences faced when the advice of activists is followed at the cost of regional Victorians. Policies based on ideology rather than practicality risk people’s lives, and the government should be ashamed of its treatment of people in regional communities. I am pleased to support this motion and call for the government to explore solutions to address this shortage, especially with the cold months ahead of us.

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:57): I move:

That debate on this motion be adjourned until the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned until next day of meeting.