FICA.ORG.NZ
your voice The voice of forestry contractors since 2002
Transformation Plan with Expectations A MESSAGE FROM PRUE YOUNGER, CEO, FICA
Te Uru Rākau hosted an industry-wide workshop on 30 October 2020. The purpose of the workshop was to set the foundation for a successful collaboration between industry and government to support the development the Forestry and Wood Processing Industry 4/7of On-site Transformation Plan (ITP); and identify opportunities and Hose Repair barriers to lifting productivity across the supply chain across short-, medium-, and long-term horizons.
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little point in reviewing what’s been when the industry could be getting better outcomes by looking forward. Would it be valuable to share with the supply chain the wood flow statistics at a regional level which drive the harvest capacity and workforce requirement? Would discussions with 24/7 O forest owners around the predictions for harvest estimates Hose and technology changes in more detail be valuable? This could make a huge difference to a contractor around their financial investment decisions, their increase in workforce and skills requirements with an expectation of business www.pir expansion.
747 0800 The objective of the workshop was to identify835 the key
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w.pirtek.co.nz challenges facing the sector and opportunities to transform @pirtek.co.nz sales@pi it across short-, medium-, and long-term in order to TING help inform the focus of the ITP. The Te Uru Rakau team I believe the ITP must review its emphasis on the people collaborated with some 50 industry stakeholder participants including FICA and some robust discussion was had with the key takeaways from the workshop as a whole including: • Speaking with a unified voice and telling the story of wood • Increasing the use of wood in the built environment • Bio-services, bioenergy and bio-products
rtek Trained • GMO/Gene Editing se Specialists
– align it with the skills required and the harvest volume – and give the industry the right predictions on the future ahead. It’s all very good to promote increased valued and technology investments to process more logs domestically but how will that change the demands on infrastructure, logistics and truck drivers and markets for these valueadded products, again with an expectation along the supply chain.
Pirtek While we collaborate to fundamentally design our forestry Hose Sp training and education programme that will deliver what we • Commercialisation need or think we need, it seems quite realistic to take into echnician round New roles Zealand available now! aroun account where the industry will be in five to ten years’ time. reers out www.pirtek.co.nz/career • Building and attracting a skilled workforce All roads lead to Rome so it doesn’t matter how something • Government support and regulatory settings is done, but rather what the end result is. We need to get this right on all fronts as we have a workforce that is tired, FICA applied for a seat at the table of the ITP Advisory feeling beaten up with a perceived shaky future, so the time Group given there was a strong focus on building and is right to put some surety back. attracting a skilled workforce, but understandably there were only so many seats and we were told we would be well The NZ Forest Service – Te Uru Rakau and ITP Advisory connected with, and part of, the development process of Group are calling for submissions and yes we will be one the Plan. of the first to get one in, as a diversity of opinions is what’s needed to get it right for everyone not just those that have But more disappointing has been the lack of engagement, been able to input in at the Advisory table. and the recent launch of the official Plan clearly mentions that the Group and Te Uru Rakau have spoken about the Check out the ITP plan at https://www.mpi.govt.nz/ inclusion of workers – on page 15 of that document there dmsdocument/52669-Draft-Industry-Transformation-Planwas a list of forestry stakeholders with every expected web. However, unfortunately this process closes 30 acronym we recognise but not FICA. September before this column comes out in NZ Logger but FICA has your back on this and we will clearly be expressing The fact that both the introduction by the Forestry Minister our desire to consider the people and the best outcomes and the ITP Advisory Group Chair reference people and for us all. the workforce, but there is actually only one page out of a 110-page Plan that is dedicated to the workforce (and a The focus of the ITPs is to support industries to transform few pictures) around the current environment, but nothing from volume to value and to lift aggregate productivity future forward is a bit of a double disappointment. to enable the scaling up of highly productive and internationally competitive industries. For the ITPs to be I wonder how these advisory groups imagined the successful, they will need to be developed in workforce of today is going to cope with the roles of partnership with industry as well as broader tomorrow and whether the workforce has any idea what stakeholders and be founded on a robust the future may look like. Most of them live in the current evidence base. world where, as it should be, they are looking forward, with predictions having some long-term goal that they can manage their business strategies based on. There appears 48 NZ LOGGER | October 2022
