Logging company gives new answer to parliament over logs sent to Victoria

• Victoria’s ban on native forest logging has led some sawmills to source timber from Tasmania, with investigations finding logs from Tasmanian forests being transported to and processed in Victorian mills.
• Significant public funding from the Victorian government has supported sawmills during the transition, with critics arguing this effectively subsidises logging in Tasmania rather than fully shifting to plantation timber.
• Environmentalists warn the arrangement is increasing pressure on Tasmanian native forests, while industry and government figures argue it supports jobs, regional economies, and ongoing demand for hardwood products.

Tasmania’s public native forestry company has corrected the record in a parliamentary committee after earlier stating that all logs from public native forests were processed in Tasmania.

Tasmanian sawmill operator James Neville-Smith confirmed to ABC Four Corners that some logs had been sent to Victoria, where processors had received compensation from the Victorian government as part of its industry shutdown.

Mr Neville-Smith said the decision was due to retooling a sawmill to be plantation-only, meaning that hardwood logs needed to be processed elsewhere.

Timber trade crosses state borders

Four Corners follows the logs, and the money, to uncover how efforts to end logging have shifted the timber trade across state borders.

Logs displaying stickers from Tasmanian state forests were also spotted at a mill in Powelltown, in the Yarra Valley, that was also a recipient of millions in Victorian compensation payments.

Victoria phased out native forest logging in 2024. Since then, environmental groups have raised concerns about large quantities of logs being transported to Victoria on the Spirit of Tasmania, but were told that all were from private forests.

On Saturday, state-owned Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) chief executive officer Dean Kearney wrote to a government business scrutiny committee to update an answer given in parliament in November.

... read the full article here

Original article and photo by "ABC News"