Feed aggregator

The New Zealand Government is seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value, excluding National Parks. Source: Timberbiz “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood for domestic processing and over time, boost the value of exports,” Forestry Minister Todd McClay said. “It will also provide nature-based solutions which are a key part to our climate strategy.” Through the RFI, the Government wants to understand what would make this an attractive and viable opportunity for potential partners. This includes: Interest in partnering with the government to plant trees for commercial, carbon and biodiversity purposes. What conditions and contractual arrangements the government might consider. What barriers to planting might exist and how the Government could help overcome these. “We’re open to partnering with a range of groups both domestic and international, and we will ensure commitments are upheld where land is subject to Treaty of Waitangi settlement obligations. “These partnerships represent a cost-effective approach to reducing net emissions while also delivering tangible benefits to local communities,” Mr McClay said. The RFI closes at 5pm on 28 February 2025.

New and improved agricultural levies legislation has replaced the former framework, making the levy system more user friendly for participants and making it easier for them to understand obligations. Source: Timberbiz More than 50 pieces of legislation governing over 110 levies and charges across 75 commodities and 18 bodies that receive levies are being streamlined into five Acts and subordinate legislation. Deputy Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Policy Matt Lowe said the new legislation would make life simpler for those interacting with it from 1 January. “From the start of 2025, the new legislation will make obligations clearer for levy payers, collection agents and bodies that receive levies, and better support industries seeking to pursue new or change existing levies,” Mr Lowe said. “More flexible and consistent, it will benefit current and future levy system participants and help industry to get the most out of the levy system. “The streamlined legislation will allow primary industries to continue to invest collectively in research and development, marketing, biosecurity activities and responses, and residue testing. “Our agricultural levy system is a long-standing, successful partnership between industry and government to facilitate industry investment in strategic activities, and the new framework will make it stronger and more effective.” Research and Development Corporations will also enjoy increased funding certainty under the new legislation. The new framework will reduce administrative costs and complexities and provide a solid foundation for continual improvement. The changes follow a review that found existing legislation was no longer fit for purpose after growing in an ad hoc fashion over the past 30 years. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has consulted extensively on the pro-posed legislation with industry groups, levy payers, collection agents and bodies that receive levies. Key features of the levy system will remain the same, such as rates and the purpose for which levies can be used, but participants may experience some administrative changes, like updated due dates and new forms. Levies are collected from farmers, producers, processors and exporters, with any proposal for new, or changes to existing, levies requiring majority agreement among levy payers. In 2023-24, the Research and Development Corporations, Animal Health Australia, Plant Health Australia and the National Residue Survey received just over $600 million in levy payments. The Australian Government contributed an additional $470 million in matching funding for research and development activities.  

Labor’s latest announcement to appear as though it is supporting timber industry communities will be seen as a waste of money that will amount to little, according to Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull. Source: Timberbiz The announcement made in late December 2024 said that Victorian forestry towns and communities were being supported to create local jobs, to take advantage of new business opportunities and plan their own future thanks to backing from the Allan Labor Government. “The government media release says it ‘will boost the local economy of forestry towns’, but when you read on, it is to ‘upskill community members to help identify future economic opportunities’ and to ‘identify initiatives by local Innovation Working Groups through the Local Development Strategies’. Mr Bull said he had never heard so much ‘mumbo jumbo’ in all his life and given this was round two of funding, challenged the government to show how many replacement timber industry jobs round one had produced. “Instead of facilitating replacement industries itself, the government throws money at these airy-fairy programs, so it can say it is supporting these communities. “Fancy saying they are going to ‘upskill community members to identify future economic opportunities’. This is something the government should have done itself before it closed down the native timber industry. “In relation to ‘identifying initiatives by local Innovation Working Groups through the Local Development Strategies’ – I hope the Minister comes back in 12 months’ time to tell us how many firm ongoing jobs this fund created to replace the hundreds they took away. “And while this is going on, we still have timber industry businesses not receiving the support they were promised. “This includes firewood contractors who received their supply from VicForests and have now had to shut down their business, without compensation. “Another wants to retain staff to transition into a new area of their business but has been told they can’t access the funds to retrain employees, unless they first make them redundant. “Fixing these issues would be real support for the timber industry community,” he said.

The $53 million St Kilda Pier redevelopment has been labelled as “hypocrisy on the grandest scale” by the Federal Member for Gippsland Darren Chester. Source: Timberbiz “Melburnians don’t have to travel to the bush to see the consequences of the illogical decision to shut down the entire Victorian native hardwood timber industry,” Mr Chester said in a Facebook posting. “Just head down to the multi-million dollar redevelopment of the St Kilda Pier and check out the new timber decking which is a centrepiece of the project.” Mr Chester said that Parks Victoria proudly boasted on its website: “the timber decking being used throughout the project is emerging as a standout feature as the distinctive curved and tiered seating area nears completion”. “Sadly, the decking timber is Darwin Stringybark from Queensland,” Mr Chester said. “How can it be a better environmental outcome to transport timber 2000 kilometres for a Melbourne project rather than source the timber locally? “Terrified by the Greens in the suburbs, the Andrews-Allan Government has banned the harvesting of native timber on public land in Victoria at an enormous social, economic and environmental cost. We are now seeing more timber shipped to Victoria from interstate and overseas while Victorian taxpayers are providing compensation to people who would rather have just kept their jobs in a world-class and environmentally sustainable timber industry. The waste of public money is obscene.” Australia’s import of timber and timber products has increased from $4.12 billion to $6.87 billion over the decade to 2022­–23 and Victoria’s dependence on imported products is predicted to grow exponentially. “In the middle of a housing affordability and timber supply chain crisis, there’s two choices with timber products,” Mr Chester said. “You either grow and use your own in an environmentally sustainable way, or you buy it from somewhere else. “The ‘somewhere else’ is often a country with poorer environmental protocols and work practices which would be illegal in Australia.” He said that the Teals, Greens and some inner-city Labor MPs were now working to extend Victoria’s ban to cover all States by asking colleagues to sign a pledge in Federal Parliament. It was a pledge based in ignorance and conceit which might play well in their wealthy suburbs but will threaten lives, and livelihoods, in timber towns across the nation. “It’s a bit rich for some of the most privileged MPs who represent the electorates with the highest income households in Australia, calling for people to be sacked from their jobs in timber towns with the lowest incomes,” Mr Chester said. He said that the Australian Bureau of Statistics average income for Orbost, the town most directly impacted by the Victorian ban, was just $785 per week. “In the leafy suburb of Glen Iris, that data is $2491 per week, and the seat is held by the Teal’s first-term Member for Kooyong Monique Ryan, who is spearheading the campaign to ban the entire native hardwood industry in Australia. “Greens Leader Adam Bandt has Docklands in his seat where the average weekly income in $1957 and in Caulfield, held by Labor’s Josh Burns, the average is $2143.” Mr Chester said that all three MPs were openly hostile to the Australian native hardwood timber industry but had no plans on how to meet the national supply chain shortfall in timber products, or how to protect regional communities which will face bushfires without the support of skilled forest machinery operators in the future. “Forest contractors are irreplaceable in an emergency situation, but they will be forced to leave country towns as a result of the Victorian timber ban,” Mr Chester said. “And before you say ‘what about plantations’, there is simply not enough trees in the ground to meet Victoria’s needs from a plantations-only approach. “The obsession with creating plantation monocultures on productive farming land, rather than selectively harvesting timber from multi-species native forests, also guarantees poorer biodiversity outcomes for our native animals. “By law, harvested areas were required to be re-planted under the system which used to exist in Victoria, and we already had a highly developed system of reserves and national parks which could never be touched,” he said. “Trees are the ultimate renewable resource and a sustainable native hardwood timber industry is part of the answer to reducing Australia’s carbon emissions as timber products sequester carbon in our floorboards, furniture and other timber products. “The ideological madness of the Labor Party in Victoria driven by environmental extremists in its own ranks has made our state more dependent on the rest of the country and foreign nations, just to build the homes and community infrastructure we need. “But that’s ok, the St Kilda Pier will look terrific with Queensland timber,” Mr Chester said.