Mere hours after Albanese announced that Australia would go to the polls on May 3rd, the $24 billion Australian forest product supply chain urgently calls on the government to extend a program crucial to supplying Australia with much-needed timber and wood fibre for decades.
The program in question is the Support Plantation Establishment Program (SPEP), which has already established more than 36,000 hectares of new softwood and hardwood plantations nationwide, including $2.3 million and 1,200 additional hectares announced yesterday:
“We welcome and thank the Government for this latest tranche of plantation establishment grants and the Commonwealth’s ongoing investment to support a range of measures for forestry and the supply chain,” says Diana Hallam, CEO of the Australian Forest Products Association. However, “to continue the critical ongoing investment in timber tree production plantings – as part of AFPA’s Australian Timber. Australia’s Future, Election Platform – we’re calling on all sides to commit to providing a $200m extension for the program to boost domestic supply, enhance sovereign capability and fight climate change by helping decarbonise the economy with increased timber and wood-fibre use.”
The call to increase the level of plantations comes after Wood Central previously reported that Australia’s forest estate stands at a 20-year low, which in turn is a major risk to the country’s long-term timber supply.
“Australia and the world is turning more to carbon-friendly resources and materials for construction, energy, packaging and a range of other products. We need new plantations in the ground now to meet the increasing future demand for timber and wood-fibre. Furthermore, as global trade becomes more uncertain, we need to focus on growing and using more locally and sustainably produced resources, rather than importing more from overseas, often from countries without the rigorous environmental standards we have in Australia.”
Diana Hallam on the importance of the $24 billion forest products industry to the Australian economy.
Earlier this week, Wood Central reported that Australia’s 25/26 budget—handed down on Tuesday night—did not deliver any meaningful new investment for the country’s forest industry. According to Ms Hallam, it was disappointing that the forest product supply chain, as one of Australia’s largest manufacturing sectors, was not included in the government’s budget announcements around green production credits: “As a sector that is truly carbon positive with innovation potential across a range of nation-building products – including bioenergy options from woodchip and timber residues – we really should be at the forefront of the Government’s planning in this policy space.”
