Andrew's government to deliver unemployment double whammy to Gippsland?

Accordingly, it seems that Victoria’s FIT process has arisen purely because of incessant environmental campaigning to ‘save’ a possum, despite an ongoing process instigated by the previous Liberal Government showing that the possum is actually in pretty good shape. A new survey methodology initiated as part of that process has discovered 218 new possum colonies in just the past 20-months – a rate of detection that dwarfs the former average of just 20 new colonies detected annually over the previous 30-years. Further to this, the use of other active conservation management strategies is proving that there is no need to declare a huge new park to successfully conserve the possum.

That the Victorian Government has continued on with the FIT despite a paucity of significant forest or industry problems has raised concerns that it is intent on declaring new national park/s simply to appease its ideological base. This was exacerbated in June when the Government appointed Melbourne University’s first Professor of Environmentalism, Don Henry, to chair the Taskforce.

Perceptions are everything, and it has not gone unnoticed that Henry has been one of nation’s foremost environmental activists who led the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) from 1998 to 2014. For at least the first decade of his tenure, the ACF had a forests policy which: 1) advocated that:

all remaining native forests and woodlands in Australia be preserved”; that 2) “opposes the logging of native forests and woodlands in Australia, believing that our society is currently incapable of harvesting wood ... in a manner which respects and maintains ecosystems processes”; and 3) called for the “cessation of logging within three years in natural regrowth areas. 

It is unclear from the ACF website whether or not this policy still applies, but it is notable that the ACF supports the creation of the Great Forests National Park and expects to get it. In a September 2016 statement on its website entitled:

The Great Forest National Park is one step closer’, the ACF’s FIT delegate lauds the progress being made: “Everyone in the taskforce has agreed on the need to create new national parks and reserves, .... We've agreed that the forestry industry needs a secure wood and fibre supply ... and if people’s jobs change they will receive help to make sure it is an orderly and just transition. ... But standing in our way is the fact that logging companies are still clear-felling the tall wet forests ... largely to make Reflex office paper, when plantation and recycled fibre are a perfect alternative. Until we secure further forest protection, flashpoints such as continued logging could easily derail our progress to date

Not withstanding this delegate’s refusal to accept the harsh reality about an ‘easy’ industry transition to plantations, this pronouncement doesn’t give much hope of a meaningful compromise which allows ongoing timber production. Its only concession seems to be that workers should be helped when the industry closes.

In September, the FIT released a ‘Statement of Intent’ which in-part noted that:

the taskforce agreed that the current ‘business-as-usual’ response to the many complex issues facing Victoria’s forests was insufficient. Wood and fibre supply was uncertain, fragile ecosystems were diminishing, and the effects of climate change and natural disasters increased uncertainty”.  Furthermore, the Statement included controversial comments, such as:  “... the Core Group agrees that new parks and conservation reserves, including national parks, are an agreed essential component of Victoria’s conservation future.

This has further heightened concern about where the FIT is headed. It is incredible that a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario whereby 93% of forests are not harvested for timber could be regarded as ‘insufficient’ to allay ecological concerns. In response, the Victorian Association of Forest Industries’taskforce delegate was moved to reassure the forestry sector:

I can assure you that neither myself, nor any industry member of theTaskforce have agreed to the creation of new national parks and reserves at the expense of industry.

This suggests that the FIT may have reached something of an impasse with the industry digging-in and refusing to voluntarily reduce its legislated access to the wood resource. Presumably in anticipation of such an outcome, the Government had already directed its Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC) to conduct a Statewide Assessment of Public Land which released its Draft Proposals Paper last month.  This contained several contentious draft recommendations that seemed to be squarely aimed at creating more national parks.