North East MPs from minor parties have backed the Coalition in questioning why the Victorian government chose to ban logging in the state's forests.
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There is an immediate ban on logging in old-growth forests, before the harvesting of younger native trees is phased out by 2030.
Wangaratta-based MP Tania Maxwell backed the Coalition's motion to question the government on Wednesday, saying parts of Northern Victoria were highly reliant on the forest industry.
"I am deeply concerned about any government taking action to shut down a practice or industry that has been in perfectly lawful existence for many years," she said.
"There are very strong arguments that the current industry is already sustainable and that the actions of the government will force the work presently performed by the industry to other countries where the regulations and environmental provisions are less rigorous."
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Premier Daniel Andrews and Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes announced the ban last week, and a $120 million support package.
Labor upper house MP Harriet Shing defended the government's decision, saying she understood there would be anguish and rage because of a lack of certainty in the industry, but it was important to do the right thing by timber communities.
She said Environment Minister and Farrer MP Sussan Ley's comments earlier this year, that the leadbeater possum should stay on the critically endangered list, was another reason to end the timber logging industry.
"The federal minister has been very firm in the need to reaffirm the possum as an endangered species," she said.
"We have the opportunity to do the right thing and it's a hard thing, a brutally hard thing."
Wodonga's Tim Quilty also sided with the Coalition, calling on "Labor members, who sit at your leisure on the magnificent timber seats in the chamber, to take a moment to look around at the work these people have done".
"You should be ashamed. Banning a sustainable industry that has been carried out for 200 years trashes the principles of the Labor Party, betrays country Victorians, and is an act of cultural vandalism," he said.
"I would say the government is treating timber workers like animals, but this is not true. If timber workers were leadbeater possums, you would not kick them out of the forest."
