Drug-yielding plants

News Gld South will expand, taking in Toongabbie, Cowwarr and more

GIPPSLAND South MLA, Danny O’Brien has welcomed the addition of new communities to the electorate of Gippsland South following a redistribution of electoral boundaries in Victoria. Gippsland South, which is already 7500 square kilometres, will grow by another 700 square kilometres, taking in Yinnar, Boolarra, Yinnar South, Jeeralang and Budgeree in the south of Latrobe City and Toongabbie and Cowwarr and the surrounding areas to the north-east. A redistribution is held every two elections to ensure that each of Victoria’s 88 lower house seats have roughly the same number of voters. The new communities in the Gippsland South electorate were all previously part of the Morwell electorate, based on Latrobe City Council. Mr O’Brien, who was born and raised in Traralgon and later moved to Sale, said he was familiar with the Latrobe Valley and these communities. “I look forward to visiting all of these towns in the coming months and working with the community and the state government to deliver a better deal for all of those areas,” he said. He said he would be visiting the communities in coming months to listen to local people and learn what their priorities are. “I am already aware that many in the Yinnar and Boolarra areas are concerned about the proposed Delburn Wind Farm which crosses into some of my existing electorate, and I know that many of the issues affecting these communities are the same as those that affect the rest of Gippsland South,” he said. Mr O’Brien said he intended to contest the next election. Tim Bull’s Gippsland East electorate remains unchanged. At 1.61 per cent below quota as of November 30, 2020, the Gippsland East district had been stable since the previous redivision and was expected to remain so in the medium to long term. Given stability in elector numbers and minimal levels of support for change, the Electoral Boundaries Commission considered there was no compelling reason to alter the current boundaries of Gippsland East.

The electorate of Gippsland South MLA Danny O’Brien will expand by about 700 square kilometres. CFMEU Manufacturing says governments must take responsibility for the decisions they make that result in workers and communities having their livelihoods stripped from them. File photo of Heyfield

CFMEU Manufacturing: Timber ‘debacle’ needs urgent overhaul

T H E t i mb e r w o r k er s u n i on , C F ME U Manufacturing, has escalated its campaign against the Victorian government’s plan to shut down the state’s native forest industry. CFMEU Manufacturing national secretary Michael O’Connor said the Victorian plan needed to be scrapped, and workers and communities properly consulted on a new, agreed approach, warning there would be implications for federal Labor if proposed help for affected workers and communities was not significantly increased. The union said the Victorian government’s “heartless, bureaucratic, and non-consultative decision-making process” which preceded the Victorian Forestry Plan had resulted in terrible outcomes for workers. It says these included a big risk to jobs that the plan “supposedly” secured, like the 1000 jobs at Opal Australian Paper and “an insulting, paltry compensation package for the proposed loss of a whole industry — a situation which has alienated entire workforces and communities”. Mr O’Connor said workers reliant on the resources and manufacturing sectors were already suspicious about the credibility of governments when they said they would transition communities and restructure industries in a way which looked after them. “If the Victorian Government’s Forestry Plan is the example, it only demonstrates that, despite the rhetoric, Labor is neither on the side of bluecollar workers, nor is it capable of providing a just transition to communities,” he said. “What voters are seeing with their own eyes in Victoria is an indictment on the Labor brand,” Mr O’Connor said. The union believes governments must take responsibility for the decisions they make that result in workers and communities having their livelihoods stripped from them. The union says far from providing a just transition, Labor in Victoria had “gone backwards”, offering “a far inferior” Workers’ Assistance package than what was delivered almost 20 years ago by the Bracks-Brumby Government in its Our Forests, Our Future industry restructure. In addition, just transition obligations in international agreements (like the Paris Climate Change Agreement) stress that the development of strong social consensus is fundamental and highlight the importance of actively promoting and engaging in social dialogue to forge consensus on all stages — from policy design to implementation. In contrast to these internationally recognised best practice guidelines on just transition, CFMEU Manufacturing maintains there has been no cogent justification provided for the Victorian government’s shock decision to shut down the hardwood timber industry, despite multiple requests from the union and community for evidence by way of resource data or other factors that may back the government’s policy approach. “If the Victorian government doesn’t act to change this debacle of an approach to public policy, and if federal Labor members don’t start calling it out, workers around the country will justifiably question whether Labor is actually on their side,” Mr O’Connor said.

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