Socio-economic impacts of the softwood plantation industry South West Slopes and Central Tablelands regions, NSW April 2018 Jacki Schirmer1,2, Diana Gibbs3, Mel Mylek1, Anders Magnusson4 and Julian Morison4 1 Health Research Institute, University of Canberra 2 Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra 3 Diana Gibbs and Partners 4 EconSearch Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................. iv Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. v Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 Methods .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Overview of the industry ........................................................................................................................ 3 Industry structure ............................................................................................................................... 3 Softwood plantation industry - South West Slopes ............................................................................ 5 Softwood plantation industry – Central Tablelands ........................................................................... 6 Integrated processing industry ........................................................................................................... 7 Other activities .................................................................................................................................... 7 Economic value ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Measuring economic impact ............................................................................................................... 9 Categories of economic impact ...................................................................................................... 9 Value of output ............................................................................................................................. 10 Industry expenditure..................................................................................................................... 10 Industry contribution to Gross Regional Product (GRP) ............................................................... 11 Employment .................................................................................................................................. 12 Direct economic value ...................................................................................................................... 12 Direct value of output ................................................................................................................... 12 Direct expenditure ........................................................................................................................ 13 Contribution of the forest industry to Gross Regional Production ............................................... 14 Total economic value including both direct and flow-on effects ..................................................... 14 Employment .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Direct employment ........................................................................................................................... 16 Employment by local government area ............................................................................................ 17 Flow-on employment ........................................................................................................................ 21 Direct employment in secondary processing.................................................................................... 22 Employment over time ..................................................................................................................... 22 Working conditions ............................................................................................................................... 26 Working hours ................................................................................................................................... 26 Income .............................................................................................................................................. 28 Workforce diversity and sustainability ................................................................................................. 29 Gender .............................................................................................................................................. 29 Age .................................................................................................................................................... 30 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders ............................................................................................... 30 Recruiting workers and contractors.................................................................................................. 31 Industry skills and training needs ......................................................................................................... 34 Formal skills attainment.................................................................................................................... 36 Business and market outlook ................................................................................................................ 39 Overall business conditions .............................................................................................................. 39 Future business expectations ........................................................................................................... 39 Business challenges ........................................................................................................................... 40 Community perceptions of the social, economic, service and infrastructure effects of the industry . 42 Quality of life and liveability ............................................................................................................. 42 Perceptions of regional industries .................................................................................................... 46 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................... 49 References ............................................................................................................................................ 50 Appendix 1 Data tables ......................................................................................................................... 51 i Tables Table 1 Direct expenditure generated by the South West Slopes and Central Tablelands softwood plantation industry, 2015-16, by supply chain stage ............................................................................................................. 13 Table 2 Economic impacts of the softwood plantation industry – South West Slopes and Central Tablelands .. 15 Table 3 Direct employment generated by the softwood plantation industry, 2016 ............................................ 18 Table 4 Direct employment generated by the South West Slopes softwood plantation industry, 2016, by local government area .................................................................................................................................................. 19 Table 5 Direct employment generated by the Central Tablelands softwood plantation industry, 2016, by local government area .................................................................................................................................................. 20 Table 6 Employment multipliers: indirect employment generated by the South West Slopes plantation industry .............................................................................................................................................................................. 21 Table 7 Forest industry employment recorded in the ABS Census of Population and Housing over time .......... 25 Table 8 Full-time, part-time and casual work in the softwood plantation industry, 2017 – industry survey results ................................................................................................................................................................... 26 Table 9 Proportion of workforce employed full-time and part-time, 2006-2016 – ABS Census of Population and Housing ................................................................................................................................................................. 27 Table 10 Working hours by industry sector, 2006-2016 – ABS Census of Population and Housing ..................... 27 Table 11 Income earned by workers, 2006-2016 – ABS Census of Population and Housing ............................... 28 Table 12 Income earned by full-time workers, 2006-2016 – ABS Census of Population and Housing ................. 28 Table 13 Workforce characteristics: gender (2017 Industry