The end of commercial native timber harvesting has had a seismic impact on the local industry, but the pain hasn\u2019t been felt equally. Small family businesses seem to have taken by far the greatest hit, while Big Timber \u2013 the corporates and multinationals \u2013 have prospered, benefiting from six levels of support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The closure of native forest harvesting was meant to see a smaller industry based on mine site clearing and ecological thinning with no firm commitments to any customer. A number of businesses saw the writing on the wall, took the compensation on offer and closed their doors. Others carried on, believing the government\u2019s promise that there would be a modest supply of logs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government\u2019s reconstruction of the industry has allowed Big Timber to continue operating without constraint while small players struggle to access wood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are the areas where the Cook government has helped Big Timber.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Big Timber has secured access to timber from government forests and plantations, so their processing operations can continue largely unabated.\u00a0 Even ecological thinning, a program meant to be designed to reduce climate risk in a manner unrelated to timber supply, has been skewed to the supply of Big Timber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first areas thinned under the program were not forests at high risk of drought or low rainfall, but the highest rainfall areas in the southwest, the karri forest, where no climate effects have been noted nor are predicted. WHY? Logs from these thinning operations are being supplied as logs to a large processing plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a similar manner, the jarrah from mine clearing previously said to be available for all industries, is now being segmented and preferentially supplied as logs to a large processing plant. Firewood operators and sawmillers who had been told that they would have access to this wood are instead being offered marri and karri logs that are not suited to processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state\u2019s forest manager no longer takes any interest in the quality of logs to be supplied to customers; this is handled by the big mining companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How were Big Timber companies able to get access to this wood? It seems that some companies could negotiate terms in private with the government without the need to compete or submit competitive prices. Small businesses have only had access to wood left over after Big Timber takes its cut, and only through competitive tender processes. Small businesses have had to bid on price, with the lowest prices likely missing out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state’s forest manager sets the commercial conditions for small businesses at a level more onerous than previously, such as reduced log grade, no minimum quantity, indeterminate haulage distances and no control over the species. These are presented as \u201ctake it or leave it\u201d terms. If operators want to be the state\u2019s forest manager\u2019s customers, they must accept the terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Big Timber has been able to negotiate their contracts. It\u2019s hard to imagine Big Timber accepting the conditions imposed on the small guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the Big Timber dealings with the government are secret, hidden behind the wall of \u2018Commercial Confidentiality\u2019. <\/em>The opposite is the case for the small business contracts which are generally known as they are set out in tenders available to all bidders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lack of transparency over these dealings and the potential for public scrutiny has been further compounded by the state forest manager’s refusal to publish timber supply data \u2013 something that has been done for the past 105 years \u2013 so it is not known how much timber is being produced from the forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government is investing $350 million into supporting future softwood timber supplies for local industry in a move welcomed after years of neglect. However, the benefits of this will mostly be in the use of Big Timber. By the government forking out the cash Big Timber do not need to invest their own money in plantation timber, with all the risks of fire and climate change being borne by the government. Previous agreements have required that Big Timber take some responsibility for their own timber supply.\u00a0 While some companies have been responsible, there is now a reduced incentive to take responsible action. Beyond this nothing is being done by government to invest in timber plantations suitable for furniture, joinery, flooring and firewood which require hardwood, not softwood species. These timbers are most helpful to small business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Small business has almost no access to government to plead its case, and there has been a drought in information provided to guide them. Big Timber \u2013 which often claims to represent the whole industry \u2013 has its feet under the table – while the family operations are left waiting to be told what is happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The failure of the government to supply suitable logs as promised is now straining the remaining small timber businesses. Of the five small hardwood sawmills which were offered contracts, two or three are already likely to close due to the lack of supply. And firewood merchants are depressed with the small size and species of logs being provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is nothing wrong with Big Timber looking after its own interests and getting the best deal it can. It is however government\u2019s role to ensure that all industry gets the same opportunity and are approached in an open and even-handed manner. Unfortunately, the decisions made discriminated against the small operators. Jackie Jarvis as Minister for both Small Business and Forestry has failed to meet the expectations for both portfolios. A parliamentary inquiry is needed to get to the bottom of the failure of the government\u2019s badly named \u201cJust transition\u201d of the timber industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The end of commercial native timber harvesting has had a seismic impact on the local industry, but the pain hasn\u2019t been felt equally. Small family businesses seem to have taken by far the greatest hit, while Big Timber \u2013 the corporates and multinationals \u2013 have prospered, benefiting from six levels of support. The closure of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":22291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[34,82],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[101],"class_list":{"0":"post-24070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opinion","8":"category-western-australia"},"authors":[{"term_id":101,"user_id":18,"is_guest":0,"slug":"gavin-butcher","display_name":"Gavin Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image002.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image002.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24071,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24070\/revisions\/24071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24070"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=24070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. Preferred access to timber<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
2. No need to compete<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
3. Timber supply terms<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
4. Secrecy<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
5. Financial support<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
6. Access to government<\/h6>\n\n\n\n