Forest Products Industry

Australia’s push to build 1.2 million new homes is being undermined by a dysfunctional building governance system, the Building Products Industry Council (BPIC) has warned. Source: Timberbiz BPIC says the Federal Treasury’s NCC Modernisation Project is “tinkering at the edges” while ignoring the failures in the building regulatory framework that are slowing construction, driving up costs, and undermining national consistency. “The real problem is not the building code alone, it’s the governing system that sits above it,” BPIC Executive Officer Rodger Hills said. “We have a building governance model that is fragmented, opaque and increasingly unable to support a sector that makes up 10 per cent of Australia’s economy.” At the top of the regulatory structure sit the state and territory building ministers, operating under an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) designed to deliver a unified national approach. BPIC says the reality is far from that vision. Key failures include: Irregular building ministers’ meetings (BMM) with no consistent agenda and no industry involvement. Opaque IGA that has become a maze of overlapping responsibilities. States pursuing conflicting policies and agendas, eroding national consistency. No meaningful feedback loop for industry or the public.   “These are not minor administrative issues,” Mr Hills said. “They are structural failures that directly affect housing supply, productivity and the cost of building in Australia.” BPIC argues the NCC Modernisation Project being undertaken by Treasury is focused too narrowly on the code itself, rather than the governance system that determines how the code is developed, implemented and enforced. “Modernising the code without modernising the governing system above it is like renovating a house on weak foundations,” Mr Hills said. “We’re calling for the Modernisation Project to immediately review the intergovernmental agreement. This is a once-in-a-generation chance to fix a broken framework that is slowing housing delivery and driving up costs.” BPIC is urging governments to adopt a set of practical reforms, including: Regular, transparent building ministers’ meetings where industry and the public have direct input into building policy development. A clear and accountable IGA structure that sets medium and long-term priorities for Australia’s built environment. An Australian Building Codes Board that is a statutory body. Early and meaningful industry engagement on proposed policy considerations likely to affect the code. A unified national vision for Australia’s built environment. Consistent adoption and implementation across states and territories. Measurable performance indicators for regulatory success, a systematic way for industry and the public to provide input, and regular progress updates from the building ministers meetings.   “This is not just a building industry concern,” Mr Hills said. “It affects home buyers, renters, and anyone waiting for a home to be built. If governments are serious about tackling the housing crisis, they must fix the governance system that controls the entire building sector.”

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Sustainable Timber Tasmania has released the annual update to its Three-Year Wood Production Plan 2026-2027 to 2028-2029 to the Tasmanian community for feedback. Source: Timberbiz The Three-Year Wood Production Plan can be accessed on Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s website at www.sttas.com.au The plan identifies forest coupes in Tasmania’s public production forests that are available across a three-year period from which a schedule of harvesting, roading and regeneration operations will be developed. The release of the plan provides the community with an opportunity to identify which forest coupes and future operations may be of interest to them. Inviting community feedback on the Plan is part of Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s commitment to engaging with local stakeholders. Feedback will then be considered during detailed operational planning and decision-making processes. Sustainable Timber Tasmanian encourages the community to: Visit sttas.com.au Read the Three-Year Wood Production Plan View the access map to identify which forest coupes may be of interest to them Contact Sustainable Timber Tasmania with their feedback at stakeholder@sttas.com.au or (03) 6169 2800   The plan was developed from modelling and spatial data and includes coupe names, provisional coupe sizes (not final harvest boundaries), location coordinates, anticipated harvest type and method, and an estimation of anticipated volumes of log products for potential recovery. It contains a significant amount of information therefore, to make it easier for people to read and understand, a spatial layer was developed and available to view on a map of Tasmania. This can be viewed on the Access Map on Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s website at https://sttas.com.au/forests-you/access-map It’s important to understand that not all forest coupes listed in the Three-Year Plan will be harvested, and final harvesting and regeneration details for each coupe may be different from what is listed. This is because Sustainable Timber Tasmania has not yet undertaken detailed operational planning for each coupe. A list of frequently asked questions regarding the plan has been made available for reading on Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s website at www.sttas.com.au

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Victoria’s $1.5 billion forestry transition has ended with a stark warning for every timber town in New South Wales and Tasmania – closing an industry is easy, rebuilding the communities left behind is another matter entirely. Source: Timberbiz Forest and Wood Communities Australia is warning that the closure of Victoria’s forestry transition program should sound an alarm for timber communities in New South Wales and Tasmania, after the scheme wound up without delivering the replacement economy regional towns were promised. “Victoria is the case study every government should be forced to read before making another decision about native forestry,” said Steve Dobbyns BSc (Forestry), Chairman of Forest and Wood Communities Australia. “Politicians told timber workers and regional towns they would be looked after. They promised transition, new industries, new jobs and a stronger future. What many communities got instead was uncertainty, hollowed-out businesses and managed decline. “That is not a transition. That is an industry shutdown dressed up in softer language.” The program closed on the final day of the financial year, more than two and a half years after Victoria shut its native forests to harvesting. Of the $1.5 billion the state committed, only $320 million was allocated through the Forestry Transition Program itself to support affected workers, businesses and communities. The results are stark. A Victorian Auditor-General’s report found the department running the program could not demonstrate that displaced workers were better off. The share of displaced workers in full-time employment fell from around 80% before the closure to around 60% after it, while part-time, casual and contract work increased. Headline job figures of 137 roles created and 436 retained were not supported by reliable evidence, and the Auditor-General found the department could not adequately show whether the program was delivering sustainable employment or business viability beyond 2026. Across Gippsland, employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing has reportedly fallen to 5%, down from 12% five years ago. On the ground, the promised replacement economy has not arrived. Mills at Swifts Creek and Yarram have closed in the past eight months, downstream businesses across Noojee, Powelltown and Orbost are thinning, and towns once built on timber are now being told to stake their future on tourism. “The lesson from Victoria is brutally simple: once the timber industry is gone, the jobs, skills, contractors, mills and supply chains do not magically reappear,” Mr Dobbyns said. “You cannot replace a working production economy with glossy transition brochures, grant rounds and vague promises about tourism. Timber towns are not museum exhibits. They are working communities built around real industries, real skills and real families. “NSW and Tasmania need to look very carefully at what happened in Victoria, because this is exactly what is coming for them if governments keep making forestry policy to appease activists rather than protect regional communities.” The program’s closing months were also dogged by allegations that transition money followed the logs interstate, with Tasmanian native timber shipped across Bass Strait for processing in Victorian mills. The Victorian Greens have since proposed laws to make it illegal for Victorian mills to process native forest timber sourced from anywhere in Australia. Forest and Wood Communities Australia says that episode proves a basic truth that governments continue to ignore – ending an industry in one state does not end the demand for timber. It simply moves the harvest, the jobs, the scrutiny and the environmental responsibility somewhere else. “Victoria banned its own public native forestry and then still needed timber,” Mr Dobbyns said. “That should surprise no one. Homes still need to be built. Floors, stairs, furniture, appearance-grade hardwoods and durable timber products still need to come from somewhere. “If governments shut down responsible Australian supply, they do not save a single plank of demand. They either shift that demand to Tasmania, New South Wales, private land or imports from countries with weaker standards. That is not environmental leadership. It is political outsourcing.” Forest and Wood Communities Australia says the Victorian experience is not a one-off. It is a documented warning. With native forestry under sustained political, legal and regulatory pressure in New South Wales and Tasmania, FWCA says governments must now answer a simple question: do they have a credible plan to protect timber workers and regional economies, or are they prepared to repeat a $1.5 billion transition that left communities worse off? “Before any government even thinks about shutting down more native forestry, it must explain what happens to the workers, the contractors, the mills, the towns and the timber supply,” Mr Dobbyns said. “Victoria spent $1.5 billion and still could not prove it had delivered secure, sustainable futures for displaced workers. That should stop decision-makers in their tracks. “NSW and Tasmania should not be next in line for the same failed experiment.”

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NSW Nationals Leader and Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh, Member for Clarence Richie Williamson and Member for Oxley Michael Kemp have slammed the Minns Labor Government’s decision to cut jobs at Forestry Corporation on the North Coast. Source: Timberbiz The MPs have said staff have been informed via email that dozens of jobs, estimated at around 50, including more than 30 in Coffs Harbour alone, are to be cut at a time when regional communities and local economies are already under enormous pressure. These jobs are to be a mix of management, office and field roles. According to an ABC report, a NSW government spokesperson said in a statement that it was working to move affected Forestry Corporation staff to suitable roles in the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It said the creation of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) would add 100 new roles. “Before the election Chris Minns and Labor promised to help regional workers transition out of forestry. Today, they’re putting politics over people and science,” the MPs said. Critics of the GKNP have included the Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union, which has publicly declared the carbon method funding the Great Koala National Park should be dumped because it rewards locking forests away instead of managing them. “There shouldn’t be an incentive for future governments to lock up land simply to fill government coffers without solid scientific rationale,” the MPs said in a statement. “With timber harvesting already halted under the moratorium, as well as this current round of job cuts, it’s unclear how the government will be able to claim any carbon credits for this project. “The NSW timber industry is among the most sustainable in the world, operating under some of the highest environmental standards while providing a resource that is desperately needed during a housing crisis. “Chris Minns said it himself – he does not understand regional communities. And he never will. “Today is yet another sad day for the hardworking men and women at Forestry Corporation who are paying the price for Labor’s budget mismanagement.”  

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