Politiek · Victoria forest pledgeVictoria forest policy: Coalition pledges native timber for mills and double planned burnsGeschreven 29 oktober 2026 om 05:57 UTCKijkenTranscript0:07Victoria's coalition wants native forest timber flowing back through local sawmills.0:11Its election pledge ties that supply to bushfire prevention and forest restoration,0:15with regional jobs and wildlife habitat at stake.0:18The program depends on the coalition winning next month's state election.0:21Can the proposed work reduce fire danger, protect wildlife, and sustain local mills?0:25Hayfield's timber industry wants more locally recovered wood.0:28The proposed program would operate across Victoria, where commercial native0:31harvesting in state forests ended in two thousand and twenty-four.0:34Conservation groups fear it would reopen logging through a different route.0:38The coalition promises targeted thinning and fuel reduction on five, zero hectares0:42of degraded public forest each year.0:44Timber recovered during that work would go to Victorian Mills, with revenue0:47reinvested in the state.0:48The proposed timber uses range from saw logs to firewood, biochar, and mulch.0:53Public land spokesperson Melina Bath says firebreak work would produce logs for0:57mills and help firefighters enter forests when wildfires arrive.1:00The coalition also promises to double planned burning.1:03Separately, it wants to work towards treating five percent of treatable public land1:06annually.1:07Invoking the Bushfires Royal Commission, that broader ambition covers a different1:11measure from the annual thinning area.1:13The coalition hasn't given a starting baseline for doubling burns or a year for1:17reaching five percent.1:18Bath says fuel management under labor has fallen below one percent of public land,1:22but that political claim doesn't supply the missing baseline.1:25Bath calls the proposal forest management and argues that closing native timber1:29operations hurt Gippsland and the Northeast.1:31Her package also promises maintained firebreaks, pest and weed control, more1:35rangers, and increased annual reporting on biodiversity and ecological outcomes.1:39Old growth and hollow-bearing trees would be protected under the pledge.1:43Cultural burning would expand in partnership with indigenous Victorians.1:46The practical safeguards, including how protected trees would be identified and how1:50compliance would be enforced, still need detail.1:52Commercial native timber harvesting in state forests ended on January first, two1:56thousand twenty-four.1:57Vic Forest closed that June, transferring its remaining property, rights, and2:01liabilities to the government.2:03The forestry transition program ended in June this year.2:06Victoria still has the country's largest plantation estate, covering three hundred2:10and eighty two six hundred hectares, mainly radiata pine and southern bluegum.2:14Plantation pine supplies construction and pulp and paper manufacturing.2:18The environment department continues to manage state forests for bushfire risk and2:21biodiversity.2:22Australian Sustainable Hardwoods managing director Vince Hurley says his Hayfield2:26business has had to source wood elsewhere.2:28It has bought interstate operations, imported raw materials from the United States2:32for Australian manufacturing, and spent heavily on Capital Works.2:35Hurley expects local wood to support employment and offer consumers a better price.2:39That's his business forecast.2:41He also says Hayfield has been affected by bushfire three times in twenty five2:45years, linking the company's timber concerns with community fire protection.2:49A Jess Wilson led government would attempt the program.2:52Nationals leader Danny O'Brien presents it as support for regional jobs.2:56Victorian Forest Products Association Chief Executive Andrew White backs lower fuel3:00loads, camera investment, and the highest value use of recovered timber.3:03Bath's preliminary estimate puts thinning and salvage at one hundred zero to two3:07hundred.3:07Zero tons of timber annually.3:09She describes that as a raw estimate.3:12Mills would still need a reliable supply that can be processed profitably.3:15The coalition pledges two point five two million Australian dollars over four years3:19for fire detection cameras.3:21Industry Co.3:22investment would bring the project to four point four one million dollars, covering3:25eighteen locations in eastern and western Victoria.3:28The proposed cameras would provide round the clock, three hundred and sixty degree3:33monitoring across more than one point four six million hectares.3:36The coalition says early smoke detection and real time intelligence would help3:39firefighters protect communities, farms, plantations, critical infrastructure, and3:43timber supplies.3:44The existing camera network detected forty-six fires in two thousand twenty-four3:48twenty-five.3:48Labor has also agreed to match industry dollar for dollar toward a reported three3:52point eight million dollar expansion.3:53Detection technology has support on both sides, although the two expansion proposals3:57may cover different work.3:58Victorian Forest Alliance spokesperson Nick Fox warns about greater gliders and4:02powerful owls, which depend on hollows in older trees.4:05National Parks Association campaigner Jordan Crook calls the policy logging wrapped4:09in new branding and warns of ecological water and fire risks.4:13Those groups join Environment Victoria and the Wilderness Society in the Victorians4:17for Nature Alliance.4:18Fox argues that standing forests provide drinking water, erosion control, carbon4:22storage, habitat, and tourism.4:24The coalition's tree, protection promise, would have to preserve structures that4:27take generations to replace.4:29The alliance claims Vic Forests lost one hundred and twenty seven million dollars4:33from two thousand and nineteen to two thousand and twenty-three, received four4:36hundred and sixty-six million in government support from two thousand and nineteen4:39to two thousand twenty-four, and that transition spending reached at least one point4:43five billion.4:44Those figures haven't been reconciled and shouldn't be added together.4:47The alliance argues that reopening native logging would waste the transition4:51investment.4:51It also claims plantations already represented ninety four percent of Victoria's4:55timber industry before closure, approximately nineteen of every twenty trees cut.4:59Its preferred direction is plantation value, adding and farm forestry.5:03The alliance cites research covering forty two zero hectares of previously logged5:08mountain ash forest in the Central Highlands, warning of regeneration failure.5:11Environment Victoria's Chris Schuringa argues that earlier logging and catastrophic5:15bushfires have left too little native hardwood for a revival.5:18The alliance points to the two thousand and nineteen twenty black summer fires as5:21further pressure on habitat and timber supply.5:24It also notes that the Meryvale Paper Mill no longer requires native forest wood.5:28A2025 study found restoration thinning had minor and temporary effects on understory5:32fuels in one regrowth river red gum floodplain forest.5:35The broader evidence for thinning's effectiveness in Australian eucalypt forests is5:39limited and conflicting.5:40A two thousand and twenty six examination describes mechanical thinning as removing5:44some trees with tracked or wheeled machines.5:46It recognizes reduced fire risk under certain conditions in fire, suppressed5:50forests, and possible drought, resilience, and habitat benefits in some settings.5:54Alongside ecological trade offs, forest type treatment and conditions shape the5:59result.6:00Neither study predicts the statewide consequences of the coalition's program.6:03Or provides a count of lives or properties it would save.6:06A parliamentary committee examining the summer fires backed Victoria's risk-based6:10approach and warned that hector targets could encourage quotas over risk reduction.6:14Friends of the Earth Melbourne campaign's coordinator Cam Walker also warns against6:17pressuring land managers to meet area targets.6:19Bath promises to publish fuel, management targets, and delivered work.6:23The practical test would be whether treatments reduce danger where people and6:27ecosystems are most exposed, rather than simply increasing the area treated.6:31National Parks Association Executive Director Matt Ruchel argues that former6:34national environmental law exemptions have gone and much of the state-enabling6:37framework has been removed.6:39The Conservation Alliance says rebuilding a broad-scale logging system could take6:42years.6:43The alliance also points to court cases that restricted or halted logging after6:47environmental law breaches.6:48Any new cutting in timber sales would need lawful authority.6:51The coalition hasn't set out the detailed legal pathway for its proposed restoration6:55work.6:56Victorians vote on November twenty-eight.6:58A coalition victory would create an opportunity to attempt the program.7:02Its fire, safety, and employment promises would still depend on where work happens,7:06what is removed, and how wildlife safeguards operate.7:08The announcement leaves the first treatment areas and delivery timetable unresolved.7:13The coalition also hasn't published a full program budget or a numerical commitment7:16to lasting jobs.Lees het artikelTijdlijn van het verhaalHeyDex
