Forestry Centre of Excellence

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:10): My question is to the Minister for Forest Industries regarding the appointment of a new Forestry Centre of Excellence director. Will the minister update the council on the recent commencement of the Director of the Forestry Centre for Excellence?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (15:10): I thank the honourable member for his question. The Malinauskas Labor government appreciates and understands the importance of research and development in our forest industries here in South Australia. This government is aware that, to make continued advances in the forest industries regarding such matters as biomass energy, the ongoing evolution of the strength of timber, such as CLG and GLT, or making our trees more climate adaptive and resilient, it is critical that further research and development is undertaken.

Prior to the last election this was a key request from the forest industry in South Australia, and we listened and we delivered. We are delivering $16 million over 10 years on a purpose-built Forestry Centre of Excellence, but also that long-term funding over a decade will allow long-term certainty for this critical industry.

Late last year, at the launch of the Forestry Centre of Excellence in Mount Gambier, the Premier and I announced to the forest industry and the community the appointment of distinguished Professor Emeritus Jeff Morrell as the inaugural Forestry Centre of Excellence director. Jeff has a significant background in the forest industry, both here in Australia and in North America, with a focus on forest pathology and mycology, along with spending large parts of his career in wood deterioration and its prevention.

He has spent time previously at Oregon State University on the west coast of the United States, where he directed the durability program, followed by five years in Brisbane at the University of the Sunshine Coast, where he helped establish the Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life. I am pleased to inform this place that Professor Morrell has now relocated to Mount Gambier in regional South Australia and just this week formally started in the new role as the Director of the Forestry Centre of Excellence.

Professor Morrell intends to be in Adelaide this week for the Parliamentary Friends of Forestry event and the Forest Industries Advisory Council of South Australia (FIACSA), where he will speak to FIACSA members about some of the centre's key priorities and aspirations for the industry. Professor Morrell has spent his career devoted to bridging the gap between academia and industry, to solve problems while developing the basic research needed to address future issues facing the forest industry.

This is a key aspect of the Forestry Centre of Excellence, with a need to bring the research sector and industry together in addressing the challenges and opportunities the sector faces. The centre is being developed to extract maximum resource value from fibre resources, reduce the industry carbon footprint, build greater collaboration between industry, academia and government, and create new and more diverse economic opportunities.

Importantly, it will encompass the full range of the forestry supply chain, including plantation management, harvesting and haulage and timber processing. It will also aim to cover the technical, safety and training aspects relevant to those sectors. I am confident that Professor Morrell will do an excellent job in this role, and I congratulate him on his success on being appointed after a global search. As a fellow Limestone Coast local, I am particularly pleased that he is calling our region home, and I welcome him to our community.