LETTER: You cannot vote to close the forests, then ask for more timber

DEAR News Of The Area,

Port Macquarie MP Robert Dwyer has some explaining to do over his support for the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) and its consequences for our region’s hardwood timber industry.

On 21 October, Mr Dwyer voted in favour of the legislation establishing the GKNP, despite knowing the serious consequences for local timber processors, harvesting contractors and regional employment.

Now he is calling for an additional 60,000 cubic metres of State forest timber to support Pentarch’s operations and protect local jobs.

Yet Pentarch’s compensation and business continuity arrangements for the loss of its contracted timber supply were reportedly finalised in December 2025.

Why is additional timber now being sought for a company that has already been compensated for losing that supply?

If this is a new commercial arrangement, where will the timber come from, on what terms, and at whose expense? What about the other timber businesses and contractors whose livelihoods have been affected?

And the problem doesn’t end with the GKNP.

The National Parks Association is already campaigning for the Great Southern Forest, incorporating approximately 365,000 hectares of South Coast State forest, and has advocated ending native forest logging on public land throughout NSW.

If those proposals succeed, where will our politicians find the next 60,000 cubic metres?

The science demonstrates that sustainable native forest management and biodiversity conservation can coexist. Yet successive decisions continue to remove productive forests without adequately accounting for the cumulative economic, social and environmental consequences.

Mr Dwyer cannot have it both ways.

You cannot vote to remove the timber resource and then claim to be protecting regional jobs by seeking more timber from an ever-shrinking productive forest estate.

Our communities deserve long-term timber supply security and sound forest policy, not compensation packages and political promises after the damage has been done.

Regards,

Steve Dobbyns, Chair & Director

Forest and Wood Communities Australia.