The plan would thin and reduce fuel loads across 5,000 hectares of public forest each year, a measure Nationals leader Danny O'Brien said would support regional jobs. Timber harvested through forest restoration and fuel reduction programs would be processed at Victorian mills for sawlogs, firewood, biochar and mulch. The Coalition also promised to expand cultural burns and to invest $2.52 million over four years, partnering with industry on a $4.41 million bushfire detection camera network across eastern and western Victoria. It said old-growth and hollow-bearing trees would be protected and that the work would reduce invasive species and weeds.
Coalition spokesperson for public land management Melina Bath said the firebreak work would produce logs for local processing and that the closure of Victoria's timber sector had hurt regional communities, particularly in Gippsland and the state's north-east. "Make no mistake, this is about forest management," she said. "We have had too long a 'lock it up and leave it' approach."
The pledge follows the Victorian government's 2024 decision to end native timber harvesting, with the forestry transition program ending in June this year. One Nation has separately proposed reviving native timber harvesting in Victoria.
Australian Sustainable Hardwoods managing director Vince Hurley said the industry around Heyfield, in Victoria's east, had been calling for active forest management. "Remember Heyfield's been impacted by bushfire three times in the last 25 years," he said. Hurley said using native timber would benefit local communities and consumers, many of whom currently buy interstate and overseas. "It's been very tough. We've had to source our timber from elsewhere," he said.
Environmental groups have pushed back. The Victorians for Nature alliance, made up of the Victorian National Parks Association, Environment Victoria, the Wilderness Society and the Victorian Forest Alliance, said the program would face regulatory challenges, including court cases that have found native forest logging breached environmental laws. Victorian Forest Alliance spokesperson Nic Fox said logging native forest was "catastrophic for wildlife", particularly for species such as greater gliders and powerful owls. "Forests are worth so much more standing; providing clean drinking water, reducing erosion, carbon capture/storage, habitat and destination tourism," he said. Victorian National Parks Association nature campaigner Jordan Crook called the policy "logging wrapped in new branding". "But with the same ecological, hydrological and fire-increasing issues," he said.