SE Queensland Forest Agreement nears expiryFriday 1 Mar 2019 If a major forestry agreement isn’t renewed by the State Government, Curly Tatnell, the part-owner of the Dale and Meyers Timber Mill, says it could be the end of the hardwood timber industry north of the Gympie region. He provided the grim warning as the South-East Queensland Forest Agreement, one of the cornerstones of the state’s timber industry, nears its expiration date.Signed in 1999, the SEQFA agreement aimed to cultivate hardwood plantations in the state over a 25-year agreement to be ready for an industry transition by 2025. More than 400,000ha of national park was created across the state under the agreement. But setbacks, including the privatisation and sale of several hardwood plantations in 2010, resulted in the resource not materialising. Mr Tatnell said not renewing the agreement would have a particularly heavy impact on the local supply of hardwood timber to mills in the Wide Bay region. Mr Tatnell said if there was adequate industry legislation covered by the State Government, the hardwood industry would be “sustainable forever”. “We’ve got an industry here where we’re not really competitive and have to spend a lot of money to get the latest machinery to produce goods,” he said. “Who will invest millions of dollars into an industry where in five years’ time there might be no resource?” A review of the state’s hardwood plantation program by GHD in 2015 concluded the State Government’s original plantation resource would not be a suitable replacement for “the native forest resource as currently sourced from State land”. Timber Queensland CEO Mick Stephens claims thousands of jobs could be lost and the AU$200million industry would be at risk of collapse if the agreement was not renewed. Source: The Gympie Times  |
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