Timber harvesting jobs lost in SA and Tasmania as China widens ban on Australian forest products
MonMonday 28
updated
MonMonday 28
DecDecember 2020 at 8:04am
The timber industry says 150 contractors have lost their jobs in the Green Triangle region in South Australia.
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Hundreds of jobs have been lost as China s uncompromising bans on Australia s timber exports get tougher, according to industry leaders.
Key points:
Another 100 jobs have been lost in Tasmania
The timber industry is lobbying for assistance to process more logs in Australia
Up to 150 contractors timber workers and haulage-truck operators are now out of work in South Australia s Green Triangle, one of the nation s major timber-producing areas, and 100 jobs have been lost in Tasmania.
China Refuses 9,000 Liters of Beer, 8,000 Kilograms of Beef from Australia
South China Morning Post (
SCMP) on Wednesday reviewed Chinese customs data and found several major blockages of Australian imports over the past month, including 9,000 liters of Australian craft beer turned away at the port city of Xiamen and 8,000 kilograms of frozen beef denied entry to Shanghai.
China and Australia are embroiled in a long-running trade and diplomatic feud.
According to the documents reviewed by the
SCMP, the craft beer from Sydney Beer Co. was blocked for “incorrect labeling” of its products, while the frozen beef from Meramist was held for “mismatched certifications.” Neither of these vague justifications was presented to the Australian companies at the time their products were rejected.
Date Time
MORRISON/ McCORMACK GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES $40M IN BUSHFIRE RECOVERY GRANTS
The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) has congratulated the Federal Government on the announcement today of 14 grants to forest industry businesses totalling $40million dollars to aid in their recovery from the Black Summer bushfires.
Chief Executive Officer of AFPA Ross Hampton said, “After the enormous challenges of dealing with COVID through 2020, the Black Summer bushfires probably feel a lifetime back for many. The sad reality for forest industries however is the devastating effects of that fire season are really only starting to be fully felt now. Harvesting crews have been working around the clock for months as we have sought to use up as much of the fire damaged plantation timber as possible. However that opportunity is quickly running out.”
Date Time
Like australia, Canada banks on massive production tree planting for jobs and climate
The Australian Government’s target for one billion new production trees, announced two years ago, has been emphatically endorsed today by news that Canada will spend $3.16 billion to plant an additional two (2) billion trees by 2030. Canada says it is a plan for meeting its climate change targets, as well as increasing the renewable resource used by the enormous Canadian timber sawmilling and processing industry.
Canada’s Minister for Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan said,
“Planting two billion trees is more than a plan for climate action. It’s a plan for creating thousands of good, green jobs. We’re confronting the urgency of climate change and getting trees in the ground starting this spring.”
AgZero 2030
Glaring Gap: Inquiry pointless without climate response
Western Australian farmers have labelled the release of the Growing Australia: Inquiry into growing Australian agriculture to $100b by 2030 report, chaired by Federal Member for O’Connor, Rick Wilson MP, a grossly inadequate response to the challenges facing the sector.
Corrigin farmer and AgZero 2030 chair, Simon Wallwork said: “Climate change has already cost Western Australian farmers, with a consistent reduction of growing season rainfall of 60mm or 20 per cent growing season rainfall since 2010, and that’s at only 1.1 degrees of warming.
“At 12 kg/mm that is an opportunity cost of 720 kg/ha if it was not due to the extraordinary adaptation of farmers, but can this continue when the effects of climate change are accelerating?