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The 30-day lockout of more than 300 pulp and paper workers by Nippon Paper’s Opal mill at Maryvale is over, after workers voted on Saturday night (February 15) to accept Opal’s improved deal. Source: Latrobe Valley Express The Maryvale members returned to work on Sunday (February 16) from 6am after being locked out by Opal for 30 days. The sticking point in negotiations had been Opal’s proposal to slash wages and conditions dramatically in a proposal that would have left workers worse off across the board. The Union and Opal hammered out a deal last Friday morning that ensured wage increases for all workers and the retention of key terms and conditions. “We are happy that our members will be returning to work with an agreement that sees real wage growth; the retention of their existing terms and conditions and no one left behind,” Pulp & Paper Workers Secretary, Denise Campbell-Burns said. “Our question is why did it take a 30-day lockout of the entire workforce; the stand down of hundreds of contractors; and forcing Latrobe Valley families to spend the last 30 days living with real concerns about how to feed their families and pay their bills for Opal to bring a decent offer to the table? “The disrespect that Opal senior management and Nippon Paper have shown their workforce has been staggering since the commencement of negotiations in October 2024, but the arrogance and disregard over the past 30 days has beggared belief. “Our members are focused on getting back to work and looking forward to the upcoming CFMEU demerger vote in a few weeks.” In a short statement the company said: “Opal is pleased to welcome our valued production team members back to work from Sunday, February 16, 2025, after reaching an in-principle agreement with them and the CFMEU today (February 15) for a new Enterprise Agreement at the Maryvale Mill. “Opal negotiated in good faith for an Enterprise Agreement that is fair and appropriate to the Mill’s current operations, which were forced to change significantly due to the sudden end of food supply from Victorian government owned VicForests. “Opal is focussed on the future of the Mill, which remains an important asset for our growth as a major manufacturer of quality cardboard packaging products in a competitive market.”

Identifying and actioning key bushfire disaster economic, efficiency and accountability lessons and insights from across Australia. John O’Donnell considers that Australia and its towns and cities is inadequately prepared for bushfires and this has been outlined in other documents. https://arr.news/2025/01/09/major-concerns-in-relation-to-bushfire-preparedness-across-se-australia-john-odonnell/ https://arr.news/2024/06/07/town-and-city-bushfire-disaster-review-case-studies-and-lessons-across-australia-john-odonnell/ There are bushfire economic, efficiency and accountability lessons and insights that need to be addressed to improve bushfire preparedness across Australia. Outcomes of intense forest bushfires (fist Flinders Ranges in 2014) and second central NSW. The first critical lesson and insight area relates to the effective capture of key bushfire economic reform issues that the author considers aren’t currently being addressed properly, including six lessons are insights as outlined in the full document. There are major opportunities for economic reform within fire management across Australia.  Failure to implement the identified and critical bushfire mitigation opportunities will result in continued large and intense bushfires across landscapes, devasting large areas, communities, ecosystems and flora and fauna. Common sense decisions and management at this time can reduce costs and impacts of future bushfire disasters. The second critical lesson and insight area relates to the effective capture of key bushfire efficiency issues that the author considers aren’t currently being addressed properly, including: including 9 lessons are insights as outlined in the full document. There is further disaster funding detail outlined in Menzies Research Centre (2020): “Despite this relentless commitment to inquiries, in 2014, a report released by the Productivity Commission into Natural Disaster Funding Arrangements found that government natural disaster funding arrangements had been inefficient, inequitable and unsustainable. ‘They are prone to cost shifting, ad hoc responses and short-term political opportunism.’ The Productivity Commission lamented that the funding mix was disproportionately recovery-based and did not promote mitigation. It observed that the political incentives for mitigation were weak, ‘since mitigation provides public benefits that accrue over a long-time horizon,’ and that over time this would create entitlement dependency and undermines individual responsibility for natural disaster risk management.’ At that time, it said, mitigation funding amounted to only three per cent of what is spent on post-disaster recovery and recommended that the Australian Government should gradually increase the amount of annual mitigation funding it provides to state and territory governments to $200 million.” and: A paper commissioned by the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities estimated that expenditure of $5.3 billion over the period to 2050 (in present value) would generate budget savings of $12.2 billion for all levels of government including $9.8 billion for the Commonwealth government for the Commonwealth Government. With targeted mitigation spending Commonwealth and State and Territory government expenditure on natural disaster could be reduced more than 50 per cent by 2050. and: Generally, one dollar spent on mitigation can save at least two dollars in recovery costs. The above information is a great summary highlighting the current inefficiency of what is happening in relation to Australian bushfire disaster management but also highlights the opportunities available for good governance. The third critical lesson and insight area relates to the effective capture of key bushfire accountability issues that the author considers aren’t currently being addressed properly, including: including 12 lessons are insights as outlined in the full document. Conclusions There are extensive lessons and insights provided above,  summarised below: Economic reform lessons and insights in relation to current approaches to bushfire funding, mitigation, suppression, land and fire management and community protection (6 lessons and insights); Bushfire efficiency lessons and insights in relation to current approaches to bushfire funding, mitigation, suppression, land and fire management and community protection (9 lessons and insights); and Government and fire agency accountability lessons and insights in relation to current approaches to bushfire funding, mitigation, suppression, land and fire management and community protection (12 lessons and insights). There are 27 economic, efficiency and accountability lessons and insights captured by the author in this review. Benefits of an expanded federal/ state and local bushfire mitigation program to address bushfire mitigation and the issues above over say the next 6 years across Australian landscapes would include: Reduced individual bushfire disasters and associated costs, budget impacts and community/ firefighter and ecosystem Reduced ongoing repeat disasters and associated costs, budget impacts and community/ firefighter and ecosystem Reduced community bushfire deaths and safer firefighting. Better returns on investment than other projects. Regional infrastructure projects to assist economies. Reduced insurance premiums. Reduced cases of people without unaffordable insurance. Improved preparedness for war and terrorism. Reduced huge greenhouse gas impacts of intense bushfires; Reduction in the consequent wetter year impacts post intense bushfires as outlined by Fasullo et al (2023). The opportunities are huge, it just takes government will, innovation, vision and protecting communities and firefighters and looking out for their interests. Surely good effective governments, oppositions and fire agencies would capture these lessons and insights and get all the long term benefits of this. Seriously, it’s well past time for this with the disasters we are seeing across Australia and overseas. John O’Donnell was a forester with the then NSW Forestry Commission for 11 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Forestry) Hons 1978 from Australian National University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Agronomy and Farming Systems from the University of Adelaide 1996 and 1997, majoring in environmental issues in agriculture. He was awarded a Commonwealth Forestry Scholarship in 1976 and 1977.