The supply of logs to the Fenning timber mill has “run out” today, prompting Nationals MP for Gippsland East Tim Bull, to call for urgent intervention in Parliament.

“This is a highly regarded local company that employs 50 people and contributes much to our community.

“The Premier said he would walk with us in the bushfire recovery and I can assure you we cannot afford to lose a company like this or the jobs it provides.

“So the action I am seeking is for the Minister to immediately supply sawlog grade timber to the mill,” Mr Bull told Parliament.

“Timber contractors are not working and as a result mills are out of logs. This is due to the fact that under this government, areas for harvest have been continually put into reserve, without other areas being returned to the sector. When this happens, something has to give.

“We’ve had enough pain in our region and this is something you can fix with the swipe of a pen, so I ask the Minister to ensure log supply is resumed as a matter of urgency.”

Shadow Minister for Agriculture Peter Walsh said there was enough timber available to ensure the mill would survive, but jobs were being lost because of the Andrews Government’s destructive policy agenda.

“Daniel Andrews is on a warpath to starve Victoria’s native timber industry of resource at the cost of local jobs,” Mr Walsh said.

“Labor’s destructive green agenda has already seen 100 people’s jobs with harvest and haulage contractors axed in Gippsland, with 80 machines parked up in the yards because they can’t get access to timber coupes.

“With almost half a million in finance payments due every month on those machines that can’t work, Labor is forcing Gippsland’s timber industry to the wall, just to further its political agenda.”

Caption: Nationals Member for Gippsland East Tim Bull, pictured with logging machinery standing idle while Fennings timber mill runs out of sawlog grade timber.