‘We need to look after ourselves’ — Jones

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A log export levy and the creation of a second national grid connection for Gisborne have been proposed by Forestry Minister Shane Jones as ways to bring “thousands” of new jobs to post-Covid-19 Gisborne.

The forest sector also needs to work with the “downstream processors” and expand the size of the sector in New Zealand, or create a better range of products, Mr Jones told media in a Zoom (video conference) meeting.

Mr Jones said in his view the nation needed to “invert the role” forest owners had traditionally held . . . “where they believe they are the ‘lord of the manor' and too many of the men and women who work in the downstream processing sectors are viewed as carriers of water”.

“I find that attitude too defensive. Now that we are facing an unemployment storm, there's no place for that kind of thinking.”

There were multiple options for that change to develop, including co-investment to reverse the fortunes of the processing sector.

Another was moving logs around New Zealand.

Mr Jones would also like to see “log-mongers” — companies who buy and sell logs — registered, whether the transactions are international or domestic.

That would involve agreeing to a code of conduct to reflect that as Kiwis “we need to buy together and look after ourselves before we look after the rest of the world”.

Responding to questions from The Gisborne Herald on negative reaction to an idea to introduce a levy on log exports, Mr Jones said a levy would help boost the overall sector.

It should not be viewed as a ban on exports, he said.

“I think the people from Tairawhiti who may be concerned need to show some respect.

“This government has poured a lot of dough into Tairawhiti, improving infrastructure, improving roads, and at no point at all have we said we are going to hobble exports.

“What we want is to ensure New Zealand's forest-owning community observes a level of primacy contributing to the ongoing employment of Kiwis in downstream processing.

“The contractors and truck drivers, they have their jobs whether the logs are sold internationally or domestically.”

Mr Jones acknowledged there was a lack of processing facilities on the East Coast.

Speaking at the Zoom meeting, Mr Jones said a reference group of senior ministers would put forward options to boost processing capacity in New Zealand.

“As part of that process, I am proposing a levy on the export of logs. However, I must say it is not government policy. It is one of the ideas I am going to put forward to my colleagues.

“It is an idea I have been asked to take forward by the wood processors of New Zealand.”

Mr Jones added that processors needed a greater level of certainty that log prices would not spike and fall repeatedly.

It was his ambition to boost the number of jobs “substantially” over a three-to-five-year period.

That would involve spending money in Gisborne to upgrade the electricity connection.

“I've been told by your mayor and people in Gisborne that unless we put in a new power connection, possibly from the Tuai dam, it's going to frustrate the development of wood processing capability there.”

He was confident there was scope to create several thousand jobs in processing “and why not in Gisborne?”