By Callum Ludwig
The future of Victoria’s forest remains up for debate as discussions regarding its use and management remain a hot topic in the State Parliament.
The oversight and works of Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMVic) have recently come into question, with environmental groups outraged at the death of an endangered Greater Glider during fire reduction works promoting discussions of amendments.
The Victorian Greens attempted to introduce some changes recently which were voted down by both the Victorian Labor and Liberal parties.
Leader of the Victorian Greens Ellen Sandell said while VicForests being shut down was welcome, there’s a lot of work to do to ensure that Labor doesn’t just move its operations to the Department of Environment [Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action/DEECA) and undertake ‘logging by stealth’, which she said has already been happening.
“Ancient forests and critical habitat are already being logged and destroyed by Labor’s Department under the guise of ‘storm clean up’ or ‘fire prevention’ work, this has already resulted in the death of a critically endangered greater glider and cannot be allowed to continue,” she said.
“We’re disappointed that Labor and the Liberals joined together to vote against the Greens’ sensible amendments, that would’ve put in place better safeguards to protect endangered species and their habitat.”
The Victorian Greens hoped to introduce ‘stronger’ mandatory surveying to protect endangered species like the Greater Glider, increased power for regulators to investigate the ecological impacts of FFMVic and DEECA works in the forest and a ban on the commercial sale of timber collected through fire reduction works.
Liberal Eildon MP Cindy McLeish, whose electorate includes large parts of the Yarra Ranges National Park and swathes of state forest, said the ill-conceived amendments put forward by the Greens increase the risk to those who live in highly forested areas like we do and have the potential to endanger human life and towns.
“The work of Forest Fire Management [Victoria[, in their role of emergency prevention is done to protect communities first and foremost, FFMVic and other emergency agencies already have a range of environmental obligations,” she said.
“The Coalition opposed this legislation but still introduced amendments requesting that ‘the Bill [Sustainable Forests (Timber) Repeal Bill 2024] be withdrawn and not reintroduced until fair compensation for loss of income is received by all those impacted by the Labor government’s early closure of the sustainable native timber industry’.”
The end of native timber harvesting in Victoria was announced in May 2023, brought forward from the previously agreed date of 2030 to 1 January 2024.
Ms McLeish said despite the former Premier committing to ensuring timber harvesters are covered and they get what they deserve, we know that that is not the case.
“Too many people are left waiting, having been let down further by the government, there are too many people who have lost their jobs and livelihoods because of the closure of the industry and contracts to VicForests who are still waiting,” she said.
“The pressure emotionally and financially is exceptionally difficult, it is grossly unfair for the government to rule a line under the industry without providing the support they promised.
“There are many people living in rural communities across the Yarra Ranges and Victoria who rely on wood fire heaters as their primary source of heating, not everyone is in a position to or is capable of collecting their own firewood, they rely on others to collect it for them, and are happy to pay but for the Greens not to understand their plight shows how city-centric they are.”
FFMVic is supposed to retain all standing trees unless they are deemed unsafe and to pose a risk to firefighters.
Labor Member for Monbulk Daniela De Martino, whose district includes the Dandenong Ranges National Park said Forest Fire Management Victoria have a duty to manage bushfire risk to protect our communities and precious biodiversity – including through maintaining strategic fire breaks.
“FFMVic bushfire mitigation works are conducted within the footprint of existing fuel breaks, with crews only treating dangerous trees and clearing encroaching vegetation that pose a risk to public and firefighter safety,” she said
“We’ve invested a record $602 million in protecting Victoria’s precious biodiversity, including wildlife conservation and rescue and rehabilitation efforts during emergency events.”
