Forest Products Industry

Taxpayers have forked out almost half a million dollars on overseas copy paper for federal agencies, as the Coalition pushes for a return of paper manufacturing in Australia. Source: Herald Sun Australia’s last white paper mill at Maryvale in Victoria stopped making the product last year, resulting in up to 200 job losses. The average price of imported paper has soared by up to $100 a tonne to around $2000, up about 5% last year. Opposition forestry spokesman Jonno Duniam said the end of copy paper production had also cost Australia thousands of indirect jobs, as well as economic activity. Senator Duniam pointed the finger at both the Victorian and federal governments, saying the shutdown of Australian manufacturing “could and should have been prevented”. “A re-elected Coalition government would seek to work closely with industry to return paper manufacturing to Australia,” he said. New figures reveal federal government departments and agencies spent at least $450,000 last year on overseas paper after Australian-made supply ended. The Defence Department made up the bulk of the costs, spending almost $200,000 so far in 2023-24. This was followed by the Home Affairs department, which spent more than $62,000, the Australian Taxation Office at almost $55,000, and the Agriculture department at about $20,000. “In December 2022, the only paper manufacturer in Australia ceased operation, and Australian made paper can no longer be sourced,” an agriculture department spokesman said. Some government agencies reinforced their commitment to going paperless. But major government departments including health are yet to respond to the questions from estimates, which are now overdue. Senator Duniam accused Forestry Minister Murray Watt of being “asleep at the wheel” while his Victorian Labor colleagues terminated the native forestry industry”. “The Victorian Labor government’s blinkered, ideological opposition to forestry always leads to worse outcomes, including for the environment,” the Tasmanian Liberal said, adding other countries had lower standards. “It was a culmination of failures by Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allen who sold out Gippsland workers and formally banned Victorian native timber harvesting from the start of 2024.” Manufacturer Opal Australia shut its paper manufacturing facilities after struggling to secure timber supply. The decision was announced after the Supreme Court put regulations on VicForests, affecting its ability to meet contracts, because it did not do enough to protect endangered gliders. Opal Australia will in mid-February have a major shutdown at its Latrobe Valley site to upgrade it so it can focus on brown packaging.

Forest and Wood Communities Australia unfortunately finds it necessary to address the recent peculiar actions of environmental activists targeting Victorian plantation timber harvesting. While respecting differing opinions, it is crucial to underscore the irony and misinformed nature of these activists protesting in plantations which were expressly established for timber utilization. Plantation timber stands as a testament to commitment to sustainability and is meticulously designed to provide a renewable source of timber. Unfortunately, recent protests indicate a surreal misunderstanding of these practices, as activists inexplicably move into plantations with the rather baffling intention of opposing timber harvesting contrary to the very purpose for which these plantations exist. Forest and Wood Communities Australia fully supports environmental awareness and responsible resource management. However, the actions of these so-called eco-activists border on the absurd, as they protest the utilization of timber in the very spaces created for that very purpose. It is perplexing to witness these activists targeting Blue-gum plantation timber in Victoria, via the states Koala population. The truth couldn’t be further from the activist portrayals as Victoria has a thriving koala population of approximately 459,865 animals, with an estimated 412,948 in native forest and woodland and a further 46,917 in eucalypt plantations. In several areas, the population density is so high it is unsustainable, with the Victorian government spending millions of dollars on sterilization and relocation programs. Aside from these obvious facts brought to you by scientists from the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (ARI), Victorian Chief conservation regulator Kate Gavens said plantation operators must adhere to harvesting conditions such as obtaining a permit from the regulator to harvest where there are koalas present, alongside consulting with an ecologist to decide how to ‘manage’ the koalas. “It includes having trained koala spotters on-site, retaining vegetation where you do spot koalas, and taking action if you do spot a koala,” Ms Gavens said. It seems the unhinged anti-everything inner-city activists cannot grasp that plantation forestry serves as an efficient way to meet the growing demand for timber while minimizing the impact elsewhere. The activists’ misguided approach undermines the pragmatic and ecologically sound reasons behind the establishment of these plantations. Forest and Wood Communities Australia condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent call for a moratorium on timber harvesting by environmentalists. Such an extreme proposition, lacking a factual basis, not only disregards the scientific foundation of sustainable forestry but also threatens the livelihoods of communities dependent on the forest and wood industries. The irony in the activists’ actions is undeniable. Forest and Wood Communities Australia extends an invitation to these activists to engage in a rational dialogue, understanding the comprehensive efforts undertaken to promote responsible forestry. The organization encourages activists to redirect their passion toward constructive efforts that support sustainability, rather than engaging in actions that unwittingly challenge the very practices they purportedly champion. Mick Harrington. Executive Officer of Forest and Wood Communities Australia

Pressure is piling up for the Federal Government to cut the nearly $10m funding of the Environmental Defenders Office. The Federal Opposition has been joined by Australian Energy Producers and the Australian Forest Products Association in calling for action against the EDO. The Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler has already said her government would be reviewing its $100,000-a-year funding arrangement. The call for defunding follow the EDO losing an action brought by the North East Forest Alliance  against the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of NSW with its lawyers arguing that the RFA should not have been renewed without assessment and approval under federal environment laws, and a landmark case against Santos’s $5.3bn Barossa LNG project, with claims the company’s proposed 262km pipeline would cause irreparable damage to First Nations people and their sites. In the second case, a Federal Court judge described a “cultural mapping” exercise and other key components of the Environmental Defenders Office case against the Santos Barossa gas project as “so lacking in integrity that no weight can be placed on them” and tainted by “confection” and “construction” of evidence. Opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in The Australian today wrote that “the absurdity of the Albanese government funding an organisation hellbent on undermining government processes beggars’ belief and points to a government that is both out of touch and out of its depth”. “That Anthony Albanese and Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek would continue to allow taxpayer money to be wasted like this is simply astonishing. It begs the question: is this all just a thinly veiled attempt to, as Queensland senator Susan McDonald puts it, ‘secure votes in inner-city seats under threat from the Greens’?” Very well put. All it seems Tanya Plibersek can say to the EDO is ‘I hope they take notice’. That might not be enough.