For North-East Tasmanians, last week’s Labor-Green forestry deal is déjà vu. Cooked up in the dead of night in Canberra, Labor’s deal with the Greens to remove legislative certainty for the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) has put our sustainable and renewable native forestry industry and jobs at risk.
We have seen all this before and each time we’ve stood firm.
My entry into politics coincided with Mark Latham’s failed attempt, in cahoots with Bob Brown, to shut down the industry in 2004.
Then in 2013, we saw the devastation, closures, job losses and bankrupted family businesses across timber communities when the state Labor-Green Government locked up over 500,000 hectares of resource.
My Liberals colleagues and I fought for our timber workers then, and we are standing with them again.
Because there is a breathtaking lack of detail on the deal Labor has done with the Greens. And there has been a stunning lack of consultation with industry and the community. It worries me that the Greens are celebrating.
Our timber workers are hardworking people. They care about our community, they take pride in their work, and they care about the environment.
Honest, hardworking Tasmanians like Manuel Hall and Triple H Contracting who started with a two-man crew and have expanded to 28 dedicated employees and six valued subcontractors with operations in the South, East and Northeast.
Good people like Ruth and Bert Vandenberg who go in before a native forest operation to harvest manferns for export all over the world.
Harvesting contractors, mills, and the manufacturing businesses that rely on local supply, all face real uncertainty now that the RFA has been weakened and thrown into doubt.
And with just 18 months until the changes kick in, the lack of detail is completely unacceptable.
Federal Member for Bass, Jess Teesdale, and Minister Julie Collins, need to come clean about what this deal means for our timber workers.
They need to provide concrete assurance that the Tasmanian timber industry will be no worse off as a result of these changes.
Our Liberal Government will continue to back this sustainable industry, the Tasmanians it employs and the products it produces.
Please contact me if you need support.
Michael we must stop this idiotic decision.
No justification for this decision against hard working forestry personnel.