AFL premiership players Leigh Brown (Collingwood) and David Wojcinski (Geelong) have thrown their support behind the plight of Australian Sustainable Hardwoods (ASH) in Heyfield.
State Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, said: “The pair grew up in Heyfield and understand the importance of the mill and these jobs to the town and the local economy”.
“Browny has recently moved back to Heyfield and although Bomber is living in Geelong, he maintains a strong family connection to Heyfield.”
Mr Bull hopes the support of the high-profile stars will raise awareness of the plight facing ASH, which has flagged it may cease operations due to lack of access to timber resource.
“As I said in Parliament last week when tabling the petition with 2,691 signatures, the timber resource needed was there in 2014 and it is there now – the difference being it has been placed into reserve in the interim without being replaced.
“Quite simply, decisions need to be made to provide resource back to the industry and political will, will achieve this, but this government knows it will not be popular in the seats like Richmond, Brunswick and Northcote, which it narrowly holds from the Greens.
“We need a native timber industry in this state, there is not enough plantation timber in the ground to replace native timber supplies and reports have shown plantation timber cannot provide the appearance grade timber the market demands.
“So if we get rid of our native timber industry, we drive up imports and the country already imports $4 billion in timber products from developing countries with far less oversight.
“ASH uses 100% of its hardwood from regrowth forests and plantations and nothing from old growth and the resource that has been locked up these past two years needs to be replaced. Many people don’t realise the industry has access to only 6% of the state’s forest – the other 94% is not available for harvesting,” Mr Bull said.
Caption: Collingwood premiership player Leigh Brown (pictured signing the petition with Gippsland East MP Tim Bull) and three-time Geelong premiership player David Wojcinski, who both have a long connection with Heyfield, have thrown their support behind Australian Sustainable Hardwoods.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
