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- 24 May 2005
Brigalow Belt South Bioregion
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The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER [9.25 p.m.]: Last week with my colleagues in The Nationals the Hon. Duncan Gay, the Hon. Rick Colless and Mr Ian Slack-Smith, the member for Barwon, I visited communities and workers affected by the Labor Government's recent devastating decision on the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion. I visited Gunnedah, in the Tamworth electorate, as well as Baradine, Gwabegar, Gulargambone, in Barwon electorate, and Coonabarabran in the Upper Hunter electorate. It was a very sad, but inspiring, duty to meet with many groups and individuals still in a state of shock at the State Government's decision.
Our visit followed a visit a few days earlier to Gwabegar, Pilliga and Baradine by The Nationals Federal leader and member for Gwydir, the Hon. John Anderson, who pointed out that those communities are trying to deal with the disastrous effect of the drought, which has been going on for four to five years in this part of the State, as well as the devastating news delivered in the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion decision by the State Labor Government. Mr Anderson highlighted the fact that Labor's tactics of imposing a moratorium on some timber milling for two years before announcing the final decision meant that vital overseas contracts had been lost to the timber mills.
The Brigalow Belt South Bioregion decision also affects jobs in Orange and Dubbo electorates, so its impact is very widespread. The Carr Labor Government has decided to lock up 348,000 hectares in the Pilliga, allocating that country to so-called permanent conservation reserves. Last Thursday's Coonabarabran Times front page tells part of the story:
Gwabegar sawmill will close. Another nail hammered into the Cypress Pine coffin as a result of the BBSB decision.
That was the headline. Then there are statements by Mr Tom Underwood, the owner of the Gwabegar sawmill, whom we met at Baradine. He has more than 50 years experience in the timber industry, and has decided to shut down the mill and exit the industry as a direct result of the Carr Government's decision. He said that Cypress pine logging in the Pilliga will be unsustainable under this Government decision. He said further:
I know the forest well enough to realise that the logging areas left are just not going to provide the quality and quantity of timber that is needed to maintain my sawmill operations, as well as those of the other sawmills in the region.
I don't want to battle on here and go broke; the last two years of moratorium have been devastating on my business. If you cannot obtain good quality timber to fill orders you can lose money so quickly it is frightening, and I just do not want to continue for that reason …
The workers are very sad about the whole thing …
I will never forget the look on the faces of the hardworking Australians at the Baradine mill, for example, as we left that place. Mr Underwood referred to the confusion among local timber workers as to the details of any restructuring package and tax liabilities that may be imposed upon them. Like everything else about this decision, Labor's decision-making process has been confusing, putting people in limbo. The Underwood family have been sawmillers in the Pilliga since the early 1920s. The Gwabegar sawmill plays a major part in the Pilliga economy.
The Hon. Duncan Gay: They are really fine people.
The Hon. JENNIFER GARDINER: They are very fine people. Mr Underwood said:
I never thought that I would have to close the sawmill in this way. As far as I am concerned, there is no scientific reason for the Government to shut up this forest. It will be detrimental to the forest environment.
He explained that, although the timber industry has been offered 20-year contracts, he is unable to see how it would be sustainable for that period of time. Tom Underwood said:
There is no doubt that there is not nearly enough good quality timber in the areas being offered to supply the mills into the future. I cannot see much future for Gwabegar when the mill closes. What have we got here without the timber industry to create employment? There might be thinning jobs, which the Government says are long-term jobs, but how long we just do not know. …
If the State Government had chosen an option similar to BRUS—
which The Nationals and the Liberal Party have supported over a number of years, and still do—
I would have kept the mill operating. But the decision process just took too long with an unsatisfactory result.
Where are people going to get their timber from out here if we all close down? More mills could go in the future. … Cypress Pine is a renewable resource.
Our Nationals team inspected operations at Gunnedah Timbers, which employs 35 staff at its Gunnedah operation and a further 15 at Baradine, with logging contractors and additional subcontractors bringing that figure closer to 100 workers. We visited both mills, at Gunnedah and Barradine, and we also visited the Laceys Mill at Gulargambone. Gunnedah Timbers injects between $150,000 and $200,000 each month into the Gunnedah economy.
Literally scores of businesses in the Gunnedah and Tamworth districts do business with Gunnedah Timbers because they have a policy of buying all their supplies locally. Paddy Paul, a manager whom we met, said that on top of that expenditure the State Government generates a further $200,000 each month in royalties. He said that what was most puzzling about the Labor Government's decision was that most of the areas now closed to millers have been logged previously. It is my firm belief that this decision has been deliberately dragged out over a period of years with the aim of breaking not just the hearts of the people affected but also their spirits. Some of their spirit has been broken, but none of these decent Australians deserves to be suffering in the way they are suffering right now.
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