Timber industry
Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (13:45): Of all the low-life despicable acts this government has inflicted on Victorians over the past eight years, shutting down the native timber industry by 2024 is the lowest of the low. Daniel Andrews has callously crushed hardworking contractors, mill owners and their workers, insulting them with paltry compensation, condemning our rural and regional communities to increased bushfire risk with the loss of specialised machinery and skilled operators and ignoring the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s comments on the positive attributes of the native timber industry. He has been too spineless to take on the activists and close loopholes in the timber code of practice – this industry has never once been associated with the demise of a single threatened species. At a time when the Premier has single-handedly created the most colossal debt in this state, he is trashing a vital product, forcing Victorians to import overseas timber from far less stringent countries. This is shame, shame, shame on Daniel Andrews.