Forestry workers in Victoria are rallying to fight the State Government's proposed ban on native logging.
From 2024, VicForests will start winding back allocations until a complete ban on logging in native forests is imposed in 2030.
A union-led campaign against the ban was stalled due to COVID-19.
This week, the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is holding planning meetings with forest industry workers in the timber towns of Healesville, Heyfield and Orbost, east of Melbourne.
"We spoke to more than 100 workers at the [state-owned] Heyfield timber mill last night as well as representatives from the local council, contractors, sawmill workers and some community representatives and it's about trying to defend the timber industry in Victoria from the government decisions," CFMEU forestry division national secretary Michael O'Connor said.
Mr O'Connor said the State Government's logging ban was ideological, cruel and irresponsible and would put thousands of regional Victorians out of work.
Agriculture minister Jaclyn Symes said the industry had already started transitioning away from native logging.
"The Victorian Forestry Plan provides a clear pathway and strong support for businesses and workers to transition to sustainable plantation timber," Ms Symes said.
Plantation shortfall
Timber industry representatives have broadly rejected government claims that plantation timber will fill the void.
"There will not be saw-log-quality timber available from plantation when the native timber industry is closed down in 2030," opposition agriculture spokesman Peter Walsh said.
"It's just physically impossible. It takes 50 to 70 years to grow good saw-log timber — it doesn't happen in 10 years.
"The varieties that are currently being planted by the Government into plantation areas are varieties for pulp wood, not for saw log.
"The Minister actually needs to go and do a lesson in what varieties actually produce what timber —the messages that have been sent out are just plain misleading."
Australian Sustainable Hardwoods employee Kerri Chivers agreed.
"It's a bit hard to transition to something that's not even in the ground — it takes a minimum of 12 years to grow," she said.
"Where are we supposed to find jobs when everything is shutting down?
"It's really disappointing that everyone says 'Buy Australian' and they're trying to shut down an Australian industry that manufactures something and they have no actual plan about what we're supposed to do."
But anti-logging protestor Chris Schuringa from the Goongerah Environment Centre said the industry had no-one else to blame for its refusal to transition to plantation timber.
"Really what it's about is investing money, time and energy into furthering the plantation industry because that is where these jobs are and it's important our forests are protected given how intense these bushfires have been and how much has been wiped out," she said.
The Government said over the past 10 years the availability of native timber for harvesting had decreased by about half due to bushfires and wildlife protection measures, and consumer and retail demand had grown for plantation timber products.
It said a $120 million package would help workers, businesses and communities during the transition away from native logging.
Grants for salvage logging
The Victorian Government has announced grants of up to $500,000 to cover the cost of storing logs burnt in last summer's bushfires.
More than 1.2 million hectares of native forest and 6,400 hectares of pine plantations were burned in Gippsland and the north east.
Salvage logs have to be harvested within 18 months of bushfires or it deteriorates and loses value.
The grants will cover the cost of storing the extra volume of logs under sprinklers or in dams.
The $2.5 million Bushfire Recovery Timber Storage Grants will be backdated to January 2020.
