MEMBER for Tamworth Kevin Anderson has come out swinging against the NSW Government regarding the loss of 20 jobs at a Gunnedah sawmill.
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Mr Anderson said he was calling on the NSW Government to make the Natural Resources Commission report public.
“The recommendations that the Natural Resources Commission had offered certainly did offer some hope to Gunnedah Timbers,” he said.
“I went through the report line-by-line with (Gunnedah Timbers manager) Patrick Paul and we agreed that if the recommendations were adopted by the government, then it offered short-term tenure for the company.”
Mr Anderson said the recommendations were that ecological thinning be undertaken in the four state conservation areas.
“Patrick Paul’s knowledge of those forests is that there are enough sawable logs there to keep the company going for the next five years,” he said.
“On Friday they informed NSW Forests that they were closing for scheduled maintenance and on Friday they chose to make those (20) workers redundant, which is understandable because there was not enough work for those workers.”
Mr Anderson said Gunnedah Timbers had a wood supply agreement with the government and made the workers redundant after the company said it was not able to source a continued supply of timber that was of an appropriate standard and quality
“I know full well the supply issues that Gunnedah Timbers are faced with, and I hope this structural adjustment will enable them to remain an employer in this community into the future,” he said.
“On the many occasions that I visited the mill, talking to workers and management, I saw and heard first-hand what they were talking about and despite the many meetings and the options put forward by the company, there has been no breakthrough.”
A statement from the business signed by co-owner Michael Paul said the company had not been able to source a supply of timber of an appropriate standard and quality for some time and, due to the diminishing log quality, was unable to keep employees gainfully employed in the sawmill operations.
Mr Anderson said he had lobbied the government to find a solution to the issue and was “devastated for the workers” and “extremely angry” that a solution had not been found.
He said the “downward spiral of the timber industry” began when the former NSW government reduced the amount of country available for logging and ultimately reduced the quality of timber.
