Maroc - TIMBERBIZ.COM.AU - A La Une - 16/Jan 23:45

Banks called out for their ‘woke’ behaviour

The Federal Coalition is renewing its calls for the Federal Labor Government to stand by its commitment to Tasmania’s native forestry sector and not let businesses and jobs be killed off by stealth. Source: Timberbiz This comes after Bendigo Bank has recently indicated that it would not lend to a Tasmanian business involved in sustainable native forestry practices for ‘ESG’ reasons, putting at risk its viability and the viability of all businesses to responsibly conserve forests within the state and, importantly, employ Tasmanians. The Prime Minister made a commitment to Tasmanians that forestry industry workers would “have a better future” under his government. Federal Shadow Environment, Fisheries and Forestry Minister, Senator Jonno Duniam, argues that this has not been the case. “Tasmania’s native forestry sector has never been in greater danger over the last 20 years than it has been under the current Federal Labor Government. Businesses are under threat while the Federal Forestry Minister, a Tasmanian no less, stands idly by and lets activists bully them towards administration,” Senator Duniam said. “I encourage the Federal Labor Government to honour its commitment to support our state’s workers. They need to do all that they can to ensure that businesses are able to obtain finance so that they can continue their world-leading, sustainable practices. Anything short of that is a failure in its mandate and responsibility to Tasmanians. “We manage our forests better than anywhere else in the world. Under Labor, and especially after their bans on native timber harvesting in Victoria and Western Australia, more and more timber is being imported from counties that don’t share our high environmental standards. This has the perverse effect of being worse for the environment,” he said. “The Federal Coalition will not take a backward step in supporting Tasmania’s forestry industry. That will again be evidenced by the policies we will take to the Federal election.” In a doorstop interview with Peter Dutton during the week he said that he applauded Eric Abetz for calling this bad behaviour out by the banks. “There are a lot of Australians who would say that big banking executives on multi-million dollar pay packets, frankly, have less values and standing than people do in the forestry industry. So why are they backed? Minister Dutton asked. “Let’s get serious, the banks are there to provide finance to creditworthy customers. If a business is legal and it has the ability to service the loan and it’s creditworthy, then the banks should not be discriminating on any other basis. “I think this whole woke agenda and the approach of chief executives trying to please industry super funds and proxy voters and the rest of it has to come to an end. If there is a customer of Bendigo Bank who is an employee within the forestry industry, are they going to stop banking that customer? Do they want to stop taking the fees that are paid by that customer working in the forestry or the salmon industry? “The banks have a moral and social responsibility to consumers, and they have a social licence which they need to honour. That social licence includes not discriminating against people who are involved in an absolutely essential and critical industry. “If Labor had their way, the salmon industry, forestry would close down tomorrow, and the Tasmanian economy would be bankrupt, and tens of thousands of people would be out of work. If the banks want to subscribe to that sort of theory, they should be called out for it – and we will call them out for it.”