Greens forests spokesperson, Senator Janet Rice has called on state and federal Labor governments to commit to ending native forest logging immediately and ensure a just transition for forestry workers that are about to face an uncertain future, with Australia\u2019s largest white paper producing plant, set to close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greens spokesperson for forests, Senator Janet Rice said:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe end of white paper production at the Maryvale paper mill shows the writing is on the wall for Victoria\u2019s native forest logging industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnions believe about 200 people may become unemployed as a result of this closure. The mill should have been supported to transition away from woodchips from native forests well before now, for example, by using supplies of logs from eucalypt plantations from western Victoria and Tasmania that are currently being exported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInstead, workers will be left with the stress of job loss, in the midst of a cost of living crisis, wondering about their future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state government saw this coming but they chose to continue denying reality. With this woeful oversight by the state government, it\u2019s time the federal government step up, commit to ending native forest logging across the country and ensure a just transition for workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRecent supreme court cases have proven illegal logging and multiple breaches of state environment laws by VicForests, resulting in native forest logging operations grinding to a halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNative forest logging is a dying industry and there\u2019s no way around it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor has a choice. They can either begin a fair transition for workers, or they can keep their head in the sand and leave more workers stranded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Greens will keep fighting to secure meaningful climate and environment legislation, which must include saving what remains of Australia’s native forests and stopping the extinction of the iconic species that call these forests home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greens forests spokesperson, Senator Janet Rice has called on state and federal Labor governments to commit to ending native forest logging immediately and ensure a just transition for forestry workers that are about to face an uncertain future, with Australia\u2019s largest white paper producing plant, set to close. Greens spokesperson for forests, Senator Janet Rice … Continue reading “GREENS URGE LABOR TO END NATIVE FOREST LOGGING IMMEDIATELY AND ENSURE JUST TRANSITION FOR WORKERS AS AUSTRALIA\u2019S LAST WHITE PAPER MILL CLOSES”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20203,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20202\/revisions\/20203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}