National MPs point finger at Premier and ‘bumbling Opal’.

 

Federal and Victorian Nationals politicians and the manufacturing union have blamed the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews (pictured), for Opal Australia’s decision to stop producing white pulp and copy paper at the Maryvale mill.

 

Federal member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, told the Gippsland Times that Premier Andrews must accept 100 per cent of the blame for up to 200 job losses at Opal’s Maryvale mill.

 

The MP told federal parliament that the main culprit was the state government and its plan to abolish the native timber industry in Victoria.

 

“Victorian Premier Dan Andrews’ plan to shut down the native timber industry is a plan to kill country towns, to kill wildlife and to kill Australian jobs. People and wildlife die in poorly managed forests,” Chester said.

 

Chester said he had raised concerns about fibre supply to the mill two years ago in a letter to senior management.

 

“I don’t trust the Premier and I didn’t believe state government assurances that jobs would be secure in the proposed transition to plantation timber. The state government’s policy to abandon all harvesting of native timber is a direct threat to jobs at the paper mill along with all other timber industry jobs in our region,” he said.

 

“These latest job losses were completely avoidable if Melbourne Labor Ministers had taken action to protect the hardwood timber industry from activists and secure the fibre supply over the longer term.”

 

The newspaper also reported that CFMEU Manufacturing said the end of white paper production was “disastrous, not inevitable”, and was the “tragic result of the state government’s mismanagement of the native forest sector and a bumbling approach by Opal”.

 

Gippsland state Nationals MPs said the state government’s failure to supply timber to the mill was the direct result of Labor policy and inaction to close legal loopholes.

 

The Nationals Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron, told the Gippsland Times: “While it’s disappointing that Opal Australian Paper has made this decision, it has clearly come about because of Labor’s policy failures on the forestry industry.”