Hansard debates

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (14:21): This is a sad day, a dark day in Victoria’s history. This is a disaster of a bill, and the Nationals and the Liberals will seek to amend and oppose this abomination. This government – the former Premier and the current Premier – have abandoned regional Victoria. They have wilfully neglected to listen to the science. They have listened to the chirpy ideologues and inner-city elites who want to see a sustainable and world-class industry closed.

On the day the then Premier Daniel Andrews was choosing the beautiful, high-quality hardwood manufactured in Heyfield from world-class ash timber for our $42 million expansion of this Parliament – he was choosing that because it is the best in the world – he signed the death knell for this industry. It is an abomination, and they should all be ashamed of themselves. Killing off Victoria’s sustainable native timber industry is economically, environmentally, socially and morally wrong.

Before I get into the detail of the bill, I would like to move my reasoned amendment. I move:

That all the words after ‘That’ be omitted and replaced with ‘the bill be withdrawn and not reintroduced until fair compensation for loss of income is received by all those impacted by the Labor government’s early closure of the sustainable native timber industry.’

I ask the clerks to circulate the amendments in my name on behalf of the Liberals and the Nationals, and I thank Emma Kealy for her hard work on this.

Amendments circulated pursuant to standing orders.

Melina BATH: Before I get into the nuts and bolts of how bad this is for Victoria, I would like to pay homage to and thank the industry, the industry workers, the towns and the various people and entities associated. Over my time in this place I have met some wonderful people in regional Victoria, not only in regional Victoria but in metropolitan Melbourne, who are part of the supply chain for our native timber industry. I would like to thank the haulage and harvest operators, the contractors and the sole traders, who are doing it so tough at the moment because the government is not honouring a commitment to fully pay them out as required and is putting blocks in the road. I would like to thank so much the machinery workers and those employed by the VicForests contractors. I also want to thank and pay homage to the civil contractors who are not associated with VicForests. So many of those do an amazing job, and some have moved between department contracts and VicForests contracts over the past 20 years as well. I want to pay homage to them. When the fires are burning and for various reasons have not been able to be put out, they drive towards those fires, putting their own lives in peril to protect our regional communities and towns. I want to particularly thank the mill owners – and there have been many in the time – their workers and their administrations. I thank them for their ingenuity, for their integrity and for their grit and hard work on the floor – for value-adding this beautiful hardwood timber product which adorns our homes, our offices, our cultural centres, our GovHubs, our schools, our libraries and indeed the $42 million offices that we inhabit when we are here. To all of those, I thank them so much for their ingenuity and craftsmanship.

I want to thank, in particular, the engineers as well. I thank the registered training organisations. I have spoken with so many training officers who upskill and educate haulage and harvest operators, who provide that safety. And I thank the TAFE teachers. I know many of them have been so frustrated with third-party litigation. I also thank the seed collectors – and boy, haven’t they done it tough at the end of this, because the government has not been recognising them for their services. And I want to thank the VicForests staff – the biodiversity experts, the forest scientists, the surveyors, the assessors, the forest managers and the regenerators. I also thank Monique Dawson for giving a damn.

When the courts have said to VicForests ‘How high?’, they have attempted in many and various ways to perform those tasks: lidar data, forest surveys, middle-of-the-night and heat sensor surveys, and it goes on. On occasion VicForests has been in an uncomfortable position. They are not universally loved by the contractors, but they have been pulled and pushed and abandoned by this government. Twenty years ago Steve Bracks in actual fact introduced VicForests, and like timber workers in our community, I think that VicForests has been collateral damage for the elites and the egos that inhabit this place.

As I said earlier, it has been a passion of mine for all of my time in here to espouse and share the importance of this industry and the science behind it. In one of my first days in this place, when Federation Room was operational, there was a buzz in that place, and the minister then was Jaala Pulford. There was a buzz of forestry people. The room was full and the future looked bright. Well, weren’t we conned indeed. We know that there have been improvements over the time for harvest practices. We know that in the past it was always evolving to better serve biodiversity and better serve outcomes, conservation and protection of zones. We have got special protection zones and we have got buffer zones. There have been five ministers, in my time, of the ag department of this government. It seems like a hot potato that nobody wants. All of the National Party would relish it, and I am sure many of the Liberals would relish being the minister for ag.

There are various things. Let us look at this: 94 per cent of the public land estate is not available for timber harvesting – 94 per cent of roughly 8 million hectares is excluded from harvest. In the last few years around 3000 trees per hectare were harvested every year and regrown. These are the facts: four in 10,000 trees are harvested and regrown. The national state of the forests 2018 report stated that there was a 95 per cent success rate for VicForests for Victorian forest regeneration. There was a 95 per cent success rate for that regeneration. We also know that there is no such thing as deforestation. What I do also know is that the wilderness groups – these Wilderness Society groups – peddle this misinformation about it. Indeed when we asked, in the decline of ecosystems inquiry, how many programs the Wilderness Society has to regenerate, create habitat and plant trees, guess what, there were no programs. So whilst they are all about shutting down industry and shutting down community and not being environmentally understanding, they do not plant trees themselves. The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) is not a good neighbour, and we know that many of those fires have established in parkland and the like and moved through – and the people in Sarsfield definitely know that.

I also want to pay homage to the late Kevin Tolhurst, who was passionate about bushfire mitigation and public access but also about active management of our forests. Dr Michelle Freeman from Forestry Australia is an eminent scientist, and we need to listen to her words and not the chirpy few scientists gone into ideology. Rob de Fegely, Professor Rod Keenan, Vic Jurskis, David Packham, Carlie Proteous, Deb Kerr, Tim Lester – the list goes on. I want to quote something from Rod Carter. Dja Dja Wurrung man Rod Carter talks about forest gardening:

I believe in forest gardening. We need to actively manage the bush, and this government is hell-bent on sterilising it and turning it into a bushfire habitat.

Thank you very much to all of those people – and more that I have not mentioned.

This government has enabled court litigation. Time and time again in this place the Nationals and the Liberals have spoken about closing the loopholes in the timber code of practice. There was a precautionary principle in the timber code, and indeed the former Premier stood in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee and said, ‘We’ve had advice. We’ve had legal advice to say that we can’t shut down this loophole’ – this timber code of practice loophole. Well, he refused to then document and share where that advice had come from. He refused to show that because, I believe, it does not actually exist and he was making that up.

We also see that the government is pandering to those environment groups, such as MyEnvironment. MyEnvironment lost a case against VicForests. They lost that case, and MyEnvironment had costs awarded against them – $1.2 million. They should have paid it. The government did not force them to pay it. It is now out to $2 million with interest costs, and the government has turned a blind eye. This is not being responsible, and this is not being fair. On one hand you have VicForests suffering these lawsuits to shut it down, and then you go around saying that indeed it is not profitable. Well, it is not profitable because you are hamstringing it all the way.

Let me speak about bushfires. I waded my way through, as did members in the Liberal Party, the decline in ecosystems inquiry, and the greatest threats to those vulnerable species are bushfires, pests and weeds. Let me say it again: bushfires, pests and weeds. Again, we need to have a sustainable principle around forest management. If you are going to cut out the people who understand that bush and who over time very gently take coupes and replant them, then you are going to have an impact. But not only that, you are taking away the capacity of this industry. Yes, some of them are going into DEECA, but clearly not all of them, and clearly those workers who live and work in the towns in our regions are not going to be there. Many of them – and I can give you quotes and examples – are going interstate and far away.

I just want to provide some information. There is this fallacy out there around how harvesting creates more bushfires. Well, let me give you some facts. I will ask if I could have this circulated and also put into Hansard. I seek leave to incorporate a graph created using evidence from the Forests Commission through the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action annual reports, showing that the Victorian bushfire area has increased as harvest volume has decreased.

Jaclyn Symes: On a point of order, Acting President, whilst Ms Bath is the lead speaker and has broad range to be reasonably general in her comments, she has spent much of her contribution detailing her issues with the decision to cease native timber harvesting. These are well-known views of Ms Bath and are already on the public record, but where she is straying to now is outside of the bill. I would ask that she be brought back to the contents of the bill, because we cannot possibly respond to every point she is raising in the confines that we will be stuck to by virtue of our contributions to the bill.

Melina BATH: On the point of order, Acting President, this government is closing down – repealing – the VicForests native timber bill on the grounds that it is not environmentally sound et cetera. This is evidence to back up my point.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur):The lead speaker does have leeway to range widely, but I will ask Ms Bath to go to the bill. Ms Bath, did you want that document circulated?

Melina BATH: Yes. Thank you very much.

Leave refused.

Jaclyn Symes: On a point of order, Acting President, I will just seek advice from the box, because if Ms Bath has indeed spoken to the minister and advised her of her intentions to seek leave and I have not been advised as such, then I would reconsider. But Ms Bath, as I have indicated, I doubt has spoken to the minister about tabling this, because it is not relevant to the bill. But if I am indeed incorrect, if you have sought advice from the minister in relation to these matters, then I would be willing to reconsider the granting of leave. But given that it is not connected to the bill at this time it would be inappropriate to grant leave, and I do not want to create such a precedent for future debates.

Melina BATH: On the point of order, Acting President, there is nothing in our standing orders that actually says that about anybody who is about to table a working document. I have approached the tables office and I have met the criteria, so there is nothing that actually says that I have to go and speak to the minister. I put that I deserve to have this put into Hansard.

Jaclyn Symes: On the point of order, Acting President, I was simply affording the opportunity for Ms Bath to demonstrate further how her line of debate in relation to the matters she has raised relate to the bill. It is inappropriate for anyone in this chamber to grant leave for people to start tabling things that are not related to the content of a bill. I have been quite generous in sitting here listening to Ms Bath’s views. We respect her views, she is entitled to her views, but she has a responsibility to confine them to the contents of the bill.

Melina BATH: On the point of order, Acting President, this particular graph relates to the commercial log production from VicForests over the last number of years.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): I can only ask if leave is granted. Leave appears to be not granted, Ms Bath.

Melina BATH: Thank you, Acting President. Not only are we shutting down our native timber industry, we are also shutting down debate on this issue, which will affect so many people.

Jaclyn Symes: On a point of order, Acting President, Ms Bath is misleading the house. Ms Bath has more than 12 minutes left to make a contribution. There is no attempt to shut down her contribution on the bill at all.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): There is no point of order, Minister.

Melina BATH: Thank you. The government has said that as part of this transition plan there will be plantations. I remember standing in the seat of Morwell – it was near Australian Paper – indeed it was in 2017, when the government then announced $110 million allocated in the budget. As it turns out, it actually happened to be the former agriculture minister, who is now at the table. They stood there and spoke about how the transition will work – by 2030, mind you – because they had this transition to plantations. What we know – and it is on record; it is on record in both the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee records and others – is that this is just not the case. There are not the trees in the ground to transition. There is not the wood volume. Australia is in peril about this – Victoria – because what are we doing now? Rather than growing our own and supporting local industry and jobs, we are going to import it from overseas with less environmental protections than we have here. There are not the plantations, despite that money. We also know that the transition to earlier closure than 2030 is having a mass effect on people. We also see that the government came up with some other ideas about this transition plan. One of those other ideas was in relation to the Nowa Nowa seedling enterprise. There was a media statement back some years ago about how it was going to revolutionise and create jobs in Nowa Nowa and be part of that solution and that plantation industry. Guess what, it did not eventuate. It was botched and non-existent, and there is no seedling enterprise in Nowa Nowa – again, turning the back.

What we also know is that this closure is false environmentalism. We know that both native timber and plantation trees are a carbon sink. Indeed the other day I went to Collingwood T3, the tallest building in Australia made from timber. It is made from cross-laminated timber and Masslam timber, it is made in Victoria and it is the last of its kind. We see these types of things happening, and it is absolutely untenable. This government made a commitment to the workers. It is very clear they made a commitment to the workers. I know from speaking with Peter Walsh that the former Premier came to Peter Walsh and said, ‘You do your thing, we’ll do our thing, but we’ll make sure that timber harvesters are covered and they get what they deserve.’ We know that that is not the case, and that is why I have moved this reasoned amendment to stop this bill until such time as timberworkers are paid.

There is one such example, and I can give you many. Jeff Coster was promised and committed to and paid 20 cents into his bank account by accepting ForestWorks commitment around $198,000 for his payment. Lo and behold, what has happened is crickets, nothing, no more. I do not actually blame the current agriculture minister – I believe that she in good faith would like to see these things come to fruition – nor the current environment minister. But the fact of the matter is there are many people out there who have lost their jobs because of the closure of this industry and contracts to VicForests and now are waiting desperately.

We talk about mental health. Mental health is being shredded out there, and this government must commit to paying those people, all of them. Indeed one of the members in the lower house spoke about that and said that everyone will get a new job and all will be well. This is not the case. We also know in relation to firewood that this government faces a problem. We hear all this banter going around about energy, and it is highly important. Our energy supply system is vital, but this is a close and immediate issue for many people: people who are elderly, people who are on the pension, people who cannot get their chainsaw in the back of their ute and go out when the firewood collection season is open and chop their own wood. They cannot do it, and there are hundreds and hundreds of them.

A member interjected.

Melina BATH: Thousands of them. They are facing a shortage of this. It will not be this year, because there is still enough left over from last year, and that is my intel from listening to people. But I spoke yesterday with a firewood supplier. He is getting his firewood in from New South Wales. What does that cost him? That cost has to be put on. These sorts of things are the impacts of this government’s decision.

The bill is repealing the Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004, it is abolishing VicForests and it is amending section 52 of the Forests Act 1958. I have a number of amendments that I will speak to now, and then further I will ask some questions in the committee stage of the minister. In relation to the main themes and purposes of these Liberals and Nationals house amendments, I refer to amendments 1 and 2. Amendments 1 and 2 would allow traditional owners to take away timber resources in state forests and use them in the manufacturing and sale of timber products. These licences already exist, but we have seen a situation in the Wombat forest where they have the licence and have been thwarted by third-party litigation and environmental groups putting up their hands and saying no. This government needs to ensure that traditional owners do have the option, do have the right, when they have licences and permits, to take that timber away and manufacture it and sell it in products.

The next part is to allow for any licence or permit-holder to take away and use in the manufacturing and sale of timber products from timber resources in state forests, such as those bespoke manufacturers of guitars et cetera. The next part is to allow for firewood, as I have been saying, to be collected and removed from state forests in commercial quantities and for that produce to be offered for sale as firewood with an allocation of no less than the quantity required to sustain demand for firewood in Victoria.

This is an important one. In this bill there is no definition of ‘imminent damage’. At the moment I and the Nationals and the Liberals and my colleague Emma Kealy, the Shadow Minister for Agriculture, see this imminent damage as a concern. It needs to be defined very clearly. We are going to move an amendment to ensure that it has a meaning, and that meaning is the ‘loss of viable populations throughout a species range but does not include loss of viable populations arising from an activity performed for the purposes of preventing or suppressing disease, dieback or fire, including thinning, cutting and removing timber, planned burning and creating or maintaining firebreaks’.

Amendment 4 seeks to reinstate the timber harvest safety zones. We had a bill two years ago that was designed to protect those people who are harvesting, to protect them and to protect the recalcitrant vandals and the protesters who come onsite – a worksite. These sites are still worksites. VicForests is going to close down. We are not going to see timber harvest safety zones, but there will still be forest safety zones. They are still a place of work, and people need to be protected. We have heard terrible stories of black wallaby tactics. We have had cases where we have had an activist bring their child onto a worksite. These places are not places for children and they are not places to have steel spikes hammered into trees. These sites need to be protected, so we will reinstate that protection through this amendment.

Lastly, the amendments seek to prevent certain civil proceedings being raised by third-party litigants in relation to an actual and apprehended or threatened contravention of the Forests Act 1958, the regulations and instruments made under that act or a licence or permit granted under the act or any other act on behalf of the Crown or an entity that represents the Crown. New South Wales has implemented this. The right authorities need to have carriage, and that is the Office of the Conservation Regulator. That is the department. Where they do, they need to take stock and implement proceedings, but not these third-party litigants. They are crushing sanity, and it just needs to stop.

In relation to this bill, let me just refresh: this government has had the ear of – and vice versa – people who are not true scientists, because if they listened to true scientists, they would understand the importance of maintaining a native timber industry. We know that the IPCC in 2019 came out with a statement. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change came out and said a well-managed and sustained forest system with an annual yield is a mitigation tool to climate change. This government has not listened to the science, and in doing so – in closing this industry and repealing this act – the impact is wide, and the mental health deterioration of people that I care about, who care about our forests and our communities, is really rather challenging. I am not going to apologise for being passionate about this. I really feel that –

Jaclyn Symes interjected.

Melina BATH: Well, we have been shut down. I have been shut down while explaining some very important issues. This government has got it wrong. This government will go down in history as having an economically flawed argument, an environmentally flawed argument and a morally flawed argument. The Nationals and the Liberals oppose this bill, and I ask the house to consider our amendments.