- In short: Environmentalists say Tasmania should follow Victoria’s decision to end logging in native forests but the local industry wants access increased.
- What’s next?: The government says it will consider the industry’s request, raising the spectre of a return to the “forest wars” of years gone by.
At a sawmill near Hobart, the ear-piercing screech of giant steel saws slicing through Tasmanian hardwood reverberates through a corrugated iron shed.
Watching on is Matthew Torenius, whose family has been milling logs for the local building industry since the 1950s.
“They used to harvest their own trees and bring them back to the sawmill,” he said.
“And then from the 1980s, it was just purely sawmilling.”
There are 16 people employed at his facility, where large logs sourced from native forests are cut into smaller sections for flooring, architraves, and joinery.
But the future of Tasmania’s native timber industry is once again in the spotlight following a major political decision across Bass Strait earlier this week.
The Victorian government has announced the end of native timber logging, bringing forward the demise of a local industry that was previously set to be phased out by 2030.
The decision, which included a $200 million transition package, caused shock and disappointment among the estimated 4,000 people who work in Victoria’s native forest supply chain.
But for conservationists, it’s seen as a pivotal moment in their campaign to end native forest logging across the country.
“The dominoes are falling,” the Bob Brown Foundation (BBF) declared in a press release.
“First WA, and now Victoria — Tasmania, Queensland and NSW must be next.”
The foundation, whose namesake made his mark protesting dams and logging in Tasmania, is focusing much of its attention on the island state.
But far from accepting the push to end native forest logging, one sector of the local industry is calling for access to some areas previously set aside for conservation under a peace deal signed a decade ago.
The tension between the two opposing sides has once again raised the spectre of a return to the so-called “forest wars”, should the Tasmanian government agree to the industry’s calls.
“People will stand up to protect those forests,” Bob Brown Foundation campaign manager Jenny Weber said.
Sawmillers seek access to new coupes
Environmental groups say native forest logging destroys the habitat of critically endangered species like the swift parrot, in addition to creating carbon emissions from burning off harvested areas for regeneration.
While their direct actions have led to dozens of arrests in recent years, the scale of protests are significantly smaller than those seen prior to the signing of the Tasmanian Forest Agreement in 2012.
That agreement, which was supported by the then Labor government, set aside half a million hectares of high conservation value forests, much of it as future reserves.
In return, the industry was given annual rights to 137,000 cubic metres of high-quality sawlogs from areas where timber production is allowed on a permanent basis.
The deal was repealed by the Liberal government in 2014, which designated about 400,000 hectares of the reserves as a “wood bank”, known as Future Potential Production Forest (FPPF) land.
Almost a decade later, the Tasmanian Sawmillers Association wants the government to consider finally utilising those FPPF lands.
“This land does really sit in bit of a no-man’s land,” Mr Torenius said.
“Whilst it’s touted as future production forests, it hasn’t been touched.”
Mr Torenius points to industry forecasts as motivation for his organisation’s stance.
The forecasts show that from 2027 onwards, the proportion of sawlogs sourced from native forests will drop to 58,000 cubic metres, with the remainder delivered through plantation supplies.
“What you don’t get in plantations as much is that high quality, slower-grown timber that is used for higher-end products, whether that be flooring, whether that be for furniture makers.”
Green groups say industry push is a ‘no-no’
Mr Torenius is urging the government to consider a direct swap of existing production areas with FPPF land because it wouldn’t affect the overall amount of land where harvesting can occur.
“I don’t think anyone in the industry wants to have a war with the environmentalists,” he said.
“This is about having the discussions, even with the government, saying, ‘Well, what do we do with this future area?’ It can’t essentially sit in a no-man’s land forever.”
But environmental groups like The Wilderness Society, which was involved in the original peace deal, say any moves to swap the land would be a backward step.
“What better example of forestry in Tasmania being unsustainable, that it now seeks to log outside the production forests and to log high conservation value forests,” its campaign manager Tom Allen said.
“That’s a no-no.'”
Mr Allen is particularly incensed that after receiving a significant compensation package as part of the peace deal, the industry is pushing for access to new areas.
“The rest of the country is transitioning forwards. The industry in Tasmania is basically asking the taxpayer to fund it transitioning backwards and we can’t afford to go backwards.”
Any move to allow harvesting in the native forests in question would require the approval of both houses of parliament.
Minister open to changes
Resources Minister Felix Ellis said he was open to backing such a push.
“Where industry can demonstrate the need, then we’ll be definitely considering that,” he said.
In the meantime, he said Victoria’s decision had opened opportunities for the Tasmanian industry, including increased demand.
“Our forestry sector wasn’t set up for different states to make such terrible decisions as this,” he said.
“And we’ll need to work through to make sure that we maximise local processing, local capability, and local jobs.”
The Tasmanian Forest Products Association (TFPA) would not say whether it also wanted some of the FPPF land to be made available for harvest.
“The TFPA has faith in the government to ensure that the estate, and our future resource security, will be correctly managed,” chief executive Nick Steel said.
Sustainable Timber Tasmania, the government business enterprise that manages the state’s production forests, said it injected more than $100 million into the local economy in 2021-22.
It also said if swift parrots are located near active forest operations, it manages the situation in accordance with recommendations from the Forest Practices Authority.
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