A decision by Justice Richards in the Supreme Court yesterday has delivered a shocking Christmas blow to timber industry workers in East Gippsland.

After years of inaction by the Andrews Labor Government to support the native timber industry, yesterday’s determination shuts down the majority of timber harvesting not only in East Gippsland, but the state.

“Minister Mary-Anne Thomas should not be sleeping well this Christmas, knowing the distress her inaction has caused these timber industry families,” said Nationals Gippsland East MP, Tim Bull.

“These Labor Ministers seemingly have no idea about the cost of their inaction as they stand by and allow this to happen. As if we haven’t been through enough without this kick in the head,” he said.

The court order cites that any coupe with one or more greater glider sightings - or a greater glider observed within 240 m of a coupe - will be shut down. Timber industry representatives say this will mean almost every coupe, as the gliders are so common.

“The industry surveys coupes and provides buffer zones, but a decision like this leaves them with no room to move. There are flaws in the Timber Code of Practice that should have been fixed.

“It’s a savage blow for this to occur as the court goes into recess over Christmas and no appeal can be heard for an extended period.

“What I would like is for someone to explain to me where our hardwood timber is going to come from if we close down our native hardwood sector. The Greens are very silent on this in Parliament, they call for closure of the sector, but have no answers as to where it will be sourced from.

“On one hand we have Planet Ark telling us to ‘Do the World some good by using wood’ as a building material, as it is renewable and sustainable, and as result market demand for hardwood is growing.

“We have an industry here in Victoria with some of the strongest oversights in the world and if we do not produce our own to meet this increasing market demand, it will have to be imported from other jurisdictions with less oversight.

“The Labor Government talks about transitioning to plantation by 2030 but the timber takes 30-40 plus years to mature, so those plantations should be 20 years old now, but they do not exist in this state.

“Hardwood plantations are also not conducive to private investment due to the delay in return and sovereign risk around fire – it just makes no sense.

“Next thing the Minister will have protestors on the steps of parliament because we are importing from countries with far less oversight and killing orangutans.”

The Victorian hardwood industry has access to less than 6% of our timber, the other 94% is in reserve or inaccessible. It harvests this small amount on an 80-year rotation, less than 0.05% of our native in any one year – and then regenerates the coupes. No old growth is harvested, only regrowth.

Caption: Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull with timber industry workers, devastated with the recent Supreme Court decision to shut down East Gippsland’s timber industry this Christmas.

Thursday, 23 December 2021

The efforts to clear the black wattle infested roadsides post fires to lower future fire risk has reached a classic bureaucratic stand-off between Regional Roads Victoria (formerly VicRoads) and DELWP.

Despite repeated questions to the Minister and meetings and discussions, it is now clear the work that was commenced and then stopped – will not recommence any time soon.

The situation is this.

VicRoads Regional Roads Victoria was happy to do the work and in fact was doing the work via its contractors and a fine job they were doing. The community was happy and adjoining landowners were happy.

They were supportive as they saw first-hand during the 2019/20 fires that the overgrown roadsides acted as wicks. It was at the end of the drought and paddocks had no feed (fuel) and did not burn, but the fire ran along roadsides to connect to new areas of bushland where it took off again. Evidence of this could be seen clearly, especially around Gelantipy.

Clearing the roadsides made sense to all involved – it would assist in stopping the spread of fire and better protect adjoining properties.

The work was going swimmingly until a complaint was lodged that the work was impacting on roadside native vegetation. This is where the bureaucratic mess started.

The Conservation Regulator (an arm of DELWP) was called in and investigated on two fronts (1) allegations the work was resulting in wildlife habitat destruction, and (2) the work was resulting in unlawful vegetation clearance.

To country folk, the habitat destruction was pushing over burnt trees that would fall across fence lines and if they did not hit a fence would lay on the ground adding to fuel loads. The unlawful vegetation clearance related to native grasses.

The result of the Conservation Regulator’s investigation was Regional Roads Victoria (RRV) could continue its work provided it undertook the “required assessments and sought appropriate authorisations in order to continue with its roadside vegetation clearance activities, where it may impact on wildlife or species”.

RRV – and I do not blame them one bit – said it would do the work the community wanted, but said don’t make it hard for us – streamline the process for us to be able to deliver it without going through a bureaucratic minefield.

We need to remember these are road reserves – largely unmaintained – that resulted in the spread of fire last summer that would according to locals in some areas, would not have otherwise spread meaning less homes and private property would have been lost.

When it comes to road reserves in townships, we must have a layer of balance and common sense applied when it comes to human and community safety.

It must be put at the top of the list as a non-negotiable. If it could assist in saving lives and property, the work simply needs be done, no ifs or buts or bureaucratic red tape.

I am not talking about all roadsides region wide, but those in townships that have abutting private freehold.

As long-time residents of East Gippsland will know, it is not a case of if we have another fire, but when and if we do not maintain fuel loads in the bush, particularly on roadsides, we will suffer the consequences.

Greater fuel loads equal greater fire intensity and on roadsides, greater fire spread.

We now have this ridiculous anomaly where owners of private freehold are being told to clear their properties, when the abutting road reserve is a highly flammable black wattle, head high grass and debris infested jungle.

In our townships, we cannot put concerns about habitat trees and native grasses ahead of human safety – but that is what we are doing.

It is time for DELWP and RRV to get their collective heads together and work out how to get this work done – work our fire prone communities want done, rather than create hurdles and obstacles for each other.

Put on a cup of tea, sit down and don’t leave the room until you work out a way you can help each other reach a common-sense outcome to reduce our roadside fuel loads rather than send emails and letters back and forth to each other hindering each other.

I’d be happy to chair it, but the problem is there is an arm of DELWP that does not want this resolved as their priorities differ. I should point out this is not a reflection on all DELWP staff, many who agree with this sentiment and understand country life very well and are strong members of our community.

But it does apply to the small percentage who go straight to the highest echelons to raise their concerns to the detriment of community safety. They will have much to answer for.

Monday December 20, 2021

On December 12, 2020, Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio – a week over 12 months ago – said technical specialists had been engaged to prepare a plan to ensure the popular Buchan pool was compliant and safe for use.

This was in response to a question in Parliament from Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, who said 12 months on, nothing has advanced.

“In fact, I asked the Minister a further question last month on obtaining a progress report. She had one month to reply under parliamentary regulations, but that date past on Saturday, and I likely won’t hear until well into next year,” he said.

“My question enquired as to a planned opening date and an explanation of what the hold-up has been. We are now three years since it was closed.

“I have explained to the Minister it is an important tourist facility in Buchan and added to the attraction of the area, but there seems to be no comprehension and no appetite to re-open it.

“This lack of interest has disappointed many in the community who have been in touch with my office,” said Mr Bull.

Cape Conran

Similarly, in September last year the Environment Minister said that the East Cape Boardwalk at Cape Conran was expected to be delivered by Christmas 2020, ‘subject to processes proceeding as expected.’

“A few months ago, I was promised it would be finished by Christmas 2021. I was there last weekend with Nationals leader Peter Walsh and work has not started even started.

“It is disgraceful that the Minister tells you it will be done by Christmas 2020 and it hasn’t been started 12 months later.

“This is the Minister and citycentric Government that said they would walk with us in our fire recovery, but they do not follow up and the words are nothing but tokenistic.”

Caption: Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull and Nationals leader, Peter Walsh at Cape Conran boardwalk. The Government committed to having it finished last Christmas, then months ago for this Christmas, but has failed again with work not even started.

Monday, December 20, 2021

Parks Victoria has yet again failed to provide accurate information on the rebuild of the Thurra River Bridge two years after the fire. Last month it said the job was ready to go to tender – when it was not.

Gippsland East MP, Tim Bull, said the lack of knowledge and incorrect information was an embarrassment.

“First of all, the Parks CEO referred twice to the bridge being to an island, where it is simply a bridge over the river, but that was not the worst of it.

“When being questioned on why it had taken almost two years for the tender to go out, the response was “I can assure you that it is ready to go out”.

“Pressed for a specific date, the response was “I will have to take that on notice.” Well here we are a month later and the recently received response shows the tender was not ready to go out at all – and is still not out,” said Mr Bull.

The response says: “Parks Victoria will finalise the detailed design for approval by the forensic engineer….. in early December 2021, following which Parks Victoria and DELWP will progress the tender”.

“In other words, it was not ready to go out all, it still needed finalising and here we are month later, and it is still not out.

Mr Bull said it also beggared belief the bridge would not be built until the end of 2023 – that is almost four years after the fire.

“At this rate these fools will be lucky to get it built before the next fire.

“They say it is complex, but a good bridge was built there over 30 years ago, and it never took four years. You just can’t tell me they would not have had this done long ago if it was in Melbourne.

“Access to the Thurra River Campground and Point Hicks is important for the Cann River economy and four years, in anyone’s language is just not good enough.

“They tell us repeatedly it is a ‘priority project’, but they take us for fools. It does not take four years to build a priority bridge.

“A few years ago, the Labor Roads Minister referred to East Gippslanders as ‘banjo playing dingbats’. There is just no respect from this city centric government.

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Photo Credit: Google Maps Street View taken September 2014, Croajingolong National Park- 7/12/2021

The Victorian Liberal Nationals have announced a major policy commitment to deliver the largest ever investment in manufacturing in Victoria’s history, a $2.5billion fund - with $1billion tagged for the regions.

Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, said the allocation earmarked for regional Victoria would go a long way to assisting the economic recovery of towns and communities.

“The fact is, that while every other state is growing in population, Victoria’s is in reverse. We had the world’s longest lockdown and will have record debt in comparison to all other states and territories.

“People want to see a plan to recover, to boost the economies that have been hit hardest and there has been no area impacted more than East Gippsland. Coming off drought, into fires and then Coronavirus, our area needs support and this fund will assist greatly.

“We have so many great manufacturing businesses in the region and if I was to mention just two, you have Kennedy Trailers and Patties Foods, both significant employers with plans to expand. However, there are many others, like our Lindenow Valley food producers.

“Growing our manufacturing sector will go a long way to assisting the recovery and there is a growing thirst for local products.

“There will be a focus on health and medicine, clean energy, transport, food and fibre,” said Mr Bull.

“Furthermore, this program will establish an industry led Manufacturing Excellence Taskforce to develop and shape Victoria’s Manufacturing Strategy.

“Instead of debt fuelled major projects for Melbourne, our plan will reinvigorate small and family businesses across the state and help rebuild and support communities from the ground up,” he said.

Caption: Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, with Kennedy Trailers’ CEO, Cory Kennedy. The Bairnsdale company is producing 16 large trailers per month to national buyers. They employ over 50 people and have plans for expansion. A great example of a family owned business at the forefront of its industry nationally.

Monday, 6 December 2021