Arthur Gorrie
Gympie timber industry workers, businesses and advocates hope to know later this month what the state government has in mind when it oversees an industry, which it says is nearing the end of its productive life.
Rural Communities Minister Mark Furner is due to answer on 26 June a parliamentary Question on Notice seeking the release of a report from the government’s Native Timber Advisory Panel, kept under wraps for much of the past 12 months.
Gympie MP Tony Perrett told parliament an advisory panel communique last October said the panel chair’s report was “currently with the Honourable Mark Furner MP”.
The report deals with issues, including industry contraction, in the wake of moves to lock up publicly owned native forest, currently used for selective logging, allowing harvesting mainly from privately operated forestry.
In his Question on Notice, Mr Perrett asked Mr Furner for “outcomes from the chair’s report” and to reveal when it would be publicly released, “ensuring accountability and transparency.”
Gympie Today quoted Mr Furner nearly two years ago, in August 2021, saying Gympie’s hardwood timber industry was nearing the end of its productive life.
“This will occur with the planned shutdown of hardwood harvesting on state land and little progress on establishing alternative private hardwood resources,” the paper reported.
Mr Furner at that time admitted the move towards privately owned hardwood resources had not gone as well as expected but attributed this at that time to “climate change and other measures,” including poor site and species selection and drought.