Tassie timber industry flourishes at our expense
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Tassie timber industry flourishes at our expense

The recent announcement that the Hermal Group, former owners of the Heyfield mill, are to build a $190 million timber mill in Tasmania and create 220 ongoing jobs, is bitter news for this region, according to Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull.
 
“The reality of all this is Burnie is gaining 220 timber jobs and we are losing 120 jobs,” he said.
 
The Tasmanian Liberal Government is providing $13million in grants and a $30 m loan to support the project.
 
It has been widely reported the Tasmanian Government has been courting the Hermal Group after it failed to receive a commitment from the Andrews Labor Government for the timber supply it needed to continue its previous scale of operations in Heyfield.
 
“The announcement that a hardwood mill, the biggest in Australia, will be built in Tasmania, will not ring well with the Heyfield and district community,” Mr Bull said.
 
“While this new Tasmanian mill will be supplied by plantation eucalypts, there was no reason why operations could not have continued at the same level they were in Heyfield.
 
“The problem is that the Andrews Labor Government has allowed more and more areas to be locked up for Leadbeater possum reserve without returning commensurate areas to the industry, so something has to give when you do this – and it was Heyfield’s timber supply and the timber worker’s jobs that gave way,” Mr Bull said.
 
Caption: Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Regional Victoria Peter Walsh and Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull receive a briefing at the Heyfield mill from Manager Vince Hurley.
 
Wednesday, January 31, 2018