Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS
1648 COUNCIL Wednesday, 1 June 2011
is good for their health. The prospect of more local
jobs, in my opinion, as a member who represents part
of the Yarra Ranges, is a good thing. For the benefit of
Mr Barber, I will quote from Mr Walsh’s letter:
VicForests has an existing presence in Yarra Ranges and the
proposal is worthy of further detailed consideration for a
suitable office based either in Healesville or Yarra Glen. I
understand relocating VicForests corporate office from
Melbourne’s CBD — —
Mr Barber — On a point of order, Acting
President, if I understand it correctly, Mr O’Donohue is
now reading directly from the document which is the
subject of this motion. It is the actual document we are
asking for. When a member reads extensively from a
document, or if it is the intention of Mr O’Donohue to
read the entire thing into the transcript, then I would ask
as a courtesy to the house that he table it.
Mr O’DONOHUE — I am more than happy to do
that.
The ACTING PRESIDENT (Mr Elasmar) —
Order! That is the answer to the point of order. I ask
Mr O’Donohue to make sure he does that.
Mr O’DONOHUE — The letter continues:
I understand relocating VicForests corporate office from
Melbourne’s CBD to Yarra Ranges could increase local
VicForests employment from approximately 35 up to
approximately 80 staff and provide significant economic and
social benefits to the community.
I understand your council passed a motion at its 27 April
2011 meeting to sign the so-called ethical paper pledge.
Institutions signing the pledge commit ‘not to purchase
Reflex paper until Australian Paper stops sourcing from our
native forests’.
It goes on:
Sustainable management of native forestry from Victoria’s
state forests is VicForests core business. Australian Paper is
an important client of VicForests and a valued Victorian
business providing real employment and sustainable
production.
The council’s pledge motion is inconsistent with state
government policy and contrary to the interests of VicForests.
The proposal to relocate VicForests corporate office to Yarra
Ranges is therefore off the table for so long as council
maintains the pledge as its policy.
The contents of that letter are hardly a revelation given
that large parts of it have been quoted in various local
media outlets, including the Upper Yarra Mail of
24 May and the Herald Sun of 26 May, in an article that
was referred to by Mr Barber.
I note the comments from one of the Yarra Ranges
councillors in the Upper Yarra Mail article dated
24 May, which included the following:
The council is not united in the pledge though, with
O’Shannassy ward councillor Chris Templer asking other
councillors to reconsider their support of the pledge.
The comments go on:
Council has made a mistake in supporting a boycott pledge
put forward by Cr Dunn against Reflex paper …
This boycott campaign is based on an ideological opinion,
which is fine for the Wilderness Society or the Greens party,
but not for elected councillors to sign our shire up to.
In this case, I feel our council chamber has been manipulated
to attack a company, its work practices and the timber
industry behind it.
As I said before, I am happy to table the letter as
requested.
Mr LEANE (Eastern Metropolitan) — The
opposition supports Mr O’Donohue tabling the letter
concerned. In the context, it sounds like it was quite a
threatening position that the minister took in relation to
the council — that is, to threaten to not relocate a
headquarters of VicForests due to action that the
council took, which it has the right to take. However, in
saying that, it sounds like the job is done as far as
Mr Barber’s motion is concerned.
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — I thank
Mr O’Donohue for reading the content of the letter into
Hansard. I hope it was the complete text. I thank him
for tabling the letter, and I look forward to grabbing a
copy in a moment. However, we did learn something
from what he has just said that we had not learnt from
the previous media report — that is, that the argument
of Mr Walsh is that the motion of the Yarra Ranges
Council was inconsistent with state government policy.
That is a new line of argument for why an MP or
minister would attempt to direct or coerce a council into
a particular course of action. Never has it been the
case — and it is certainly not contained in the Local
Government Act 1989 — that councils are required to
act at all times to be consistent with state government
policy. The fact is that councils frequently act
inconsistently with state government policy when it is
in the best interests of their electorate to do so.
We also heard quoted from that letter that the minister’s
consideration was that the paper pledge was damaging
to VicForests. Of course there will be occasions when
the interests of a state-owned enterprise or the state
government as a whole could be directly opposed to
those of a local council, for example. They could be in