The West Australia Minister for Forestry Jackie Jarvis has admitted she was \u201cconfused\u201d in providing an error-ridden performance trying to explain the government\u2019s forestry budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Faced with an Opposition looking to understand why the state is now heavily subsidising its loss-making forestry business, the minister\u2019s responses only added to the thick fog surrounding the Cook government\u2019s forestry mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 1918, the forestry agencies have produced annual statistics covering the timber industry, forest resources and timber production. Previously published in the Annual Report, they are now a separate online document. Under Minister Jarvis these statistics have been released nearly a year later than previously, and last year\u2019s statistics are yet to be posted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Statistics provide a valuable snapshot of the forest resources, the wood available and quantities produced by species and quality. Of course, it is also a measure of accountability for the government. It\u2019s easy to find statistics for fisheries, agriculture and mining. So why is it so hard for forestry? As an FPC commissioner for five years you\u2019d think the minister would find some idea, a clue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked, the minister first claimed they weren\u2019t being produced, then they were, then then there wasn\u2019t enough resources to produce them. Really? With the FPC being flooded with government money it\u2019s incomprehensible that they can\u2019t produce a simple report requiring a data download from existing files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Failure to provide this data makes you wonder whether there\u2019s something to hide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was originally planned to expand the pine plantations by around 35,000 hectares. However, the red-hot market for agricultural land has diminished the purchasing power of this investment. When asked, the minister first stated that 80% of the investment was being spent on land and the balance on trees. She then corrected herself claiming that 98.5% of the money would be used to purchase land. This is crazy stuff and so obviously incorrect that it\u2019s a wonder the minister\u2019s forestry minders didn\u2019t protect her from this gaffe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If only 1.5% of $350 million is to be spend on trees (i.e. $5.25 million), this will plant no more than 3000 hectares, meaning the land would cost $115,000 per hectare or $100 per tree. One certainly hopes not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s time the minister found some forestry advisers who can do their sums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The policy of thinning the forests to improve its resilience to climate change is the cornerstone of closing the forest industry. If you believe the rhetoric, then not only are the state\u2019s forests at risk, but all forests are at risk. When asked whether ecological thinning could occur in national parks, Jackie Jarvis categorically denied it. Yet in the newly published Forest Management Plan, thinning on all lands is clearly allowed, parks included. The minister needs to catch up with the government\u2019s commitments on forests. After all, she is the Minister for Forestry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No-one seems to want to take responsibility for the wood from the subsidised thinning operations. More than $40 million is being spent each year and massive stockpiles are being built. The FPC\u2019s financial statements don\u2019t include the stockpiles as an asset and wood sales aren\u2019t included in its revenues. It claims the money is passed on to Treasury. Accounting standards would suggest that the FPC controls this process and needs to account for public money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister also stated that the wood from ecological thinning would be sold through competitive processes. However, there don\u2019t seem to have been any sales for such wood on the government tenders\u2019 website, yet there has been a stream of karri logs coming north out of the southern forests. I think the minister needs to check whether or not these were sold by private arrangements and not by competitive processes, as she claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After previously running the state out of firewood the government is decidedly nervous about ongoing supplies. When asked whether firewood supplies would be adequate this winter the minister deferred to her adviser. He claimed firewood would be OK as wood is now (mid-winter) being delivered to contractors. This obfuscated the point that firewood needs to be cut and dried for at least six months over the summer. There\u2019s no point delivering firewood today \u2013 it\u2019s illegal to retail green firewood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The budget papers have revealed one thing: the Jarvis forestry administration is bumbling its way to becoming more secretive, inwardly focused and detached from the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The McGowan\/Cook government has been the first in 50 years to have failed to create conditions for new investment in timber processing, presiding over a massive decline in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s time to clear away the minister\u2019s confusion\u2014the fog\u2014and look to new leadership to rebuild a sustainable industry with the massive renewable resources currently wasting in forestry stockpiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The West Australia Minister for Forestry Jackie Jarvis has admitted she was \u201cconfused\u201d in providing an error-ridden performance trying to explain the government\u2019s forestry budget. Faced with an Opposition looking to understand why the state is now heavily subsidising its loss-making forestry business, the minister\u2019s responses only added to the thick fog surrounding the Cook […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":18886,"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-18885","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\/18885","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=18885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18887,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18885\/revisions\/18887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18885"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=18885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}