Native timber logging in Victoria is set to grind to a halt by the end of the year, with the state government using today's budget to bring forward the death of the industry.
The state's timber industry has been troubled for years, with bushfires, environmental no-logging zones and court decisions limiting the supply available to harvest every year.
Today's announcement accelerates plans announced in 2019 by the Andrews government to phase out native timber logging by 2030.
Treasurer Tim Pallas has announced a more than $200 million transition package for the industry in today's budget, and workers are being briefed this morning about the decision.
It will include support for workers and their families to exit the embattled industry by the end of the year.
The package brings total support for the sector to $875 million, including existing worker-support services and funding to transition to plantation timber.
The pain from today's announcement will be felt across regional Victoria.
The package will give workers options to retrain in sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, transport and construction through the government's Free TAFE program.
Affected workers will be offered up to $8,000 in retraining vouchers for courses outside the TAFE sector.
Native timber mills will be eligible for a voluntary transition package, whether they choose to stay in timber processing or switch to another sector.
Victorian Regional Development Minister Harriet Shing acknowledged today was difficult for the industry, but said bushfires and litigation were responsible for the decision.
"We don't underestimate the challenges that this will create for workers for their families, for businesses and for communities who for generations have relied on timber harvesting to make a living and to craft their own identities," she said.
"Today's decision is about making sure that workers have a measure of certainty that businesses can plan and can continue the transition work that many of them have already begun."
Victorian Association of Forestry Industries has estimated more than 21,000 people work in forestry and the wood products industry.
The association said 4,000 people work across the native forestry supply chain.
Other studies have placed the number at 2,200.
'Devastating' for logging workers
Some of the industry's workers have been left reeling from the early closure announcement, despite the government's support package.
Forestry consultant Garry Squires said around 25 per cent of the jobs in his town of Orbost in East Gippsland are in native logging.
"There's been a lot of work going into planning for the 2030 close down, trying to look at new options for the future," he told ABC Radio Victoria.
"If this is actually brought forward… that will be devastating because we're just not ready."
He said for some workers and their families, the announcement will resolve uncertainty, but others have no alternative employment options.
"The morale since November last year... with the court case, has been pretty low. It's hard when you don't know if you're going to have a job into the future."
Nationals leader Peter Walsh said he was "absolutely appalled" by the decision to fast-track the end of native timber logging.
"We are not going to stop using timber in Victoria. It's a sad day for orangutans in Asia because that's where the timber is going to come from," he said.
"We have a sustainable industry, a very well-managed industry that the Labor party has abandoned, and all those communities particularly in eastern Victoria that rely on the timber industry — they will suffer severely."
Future forest opportunities
Environment Victoria chief executive Jono La Nauze said the situation facing the native timber logging industry had become "untenable."
"Courts keep finding that these forests are critical habitat and logging is having too much of an impact," he told ABC Radio Victoria.
"Also we are now facing a future with a rapidly heating climate, plus this legacy of environmental damage from the past."
Mr Le Nauze said many workers will still be needed in the state's forests.
"We have a restoration job to do, we have to manage the threat of fires to both nature and people.
"I hope we see today a big [budget] package looking to secure the future of those workers, still working in the forest for many of them but actually deriving a public benefit from ensuring those forests remain intact and are restored."
Court decision deals massive blow to industry
Some sawmills have already ceased production due to their timber supply drying up, leaving their workforce in limbo.
Many were left without timber when the government-owned logging company VicForests stopped harvesting in November last year after an adverse ruling in the Supreme Court.
The court ruled it broke the law by failing to adequately protect the yellow-bellied glider and the endangered greater glider in Central Victoria and Gippsland.
The court ordered VicForests to undertake more rigorous surveying for the two species in logging coupes, expand protected areas and maintain minimum levels of eucalypts in areas where gliders were identified.
But its most recent annual report shows it was already in trouble, posting a loss of $54.2 million in 2021-22.
During that time it was forced to pay $6.2 million in stand-down payments to its contractors because of delays and constraints on its operations.
It also paid $7.5 million in compensation to customers for its failure to supply contracted volumes.
