Reports that more than 300 Labor branches have backed a push to see native forestry stopped across the country increases the pressure on Tasmanian Opposition Leader Rebecca White and Tasmanian Labor, according to the State’s Resources Minister Felix Ellis. Source: Timberbiz
“Despite claims to the contrary, it’s anyone’s guess as to how long Ms White can hold out to Labor’s anti-forestry membership base,” Mr Ellis said.
The Guardian reported this week that a report by the Labor Environment Action Network (Lean), the ALP’s largest internal lobby group, had called for the party’s national conference next month to support an industry policy focused on restoring native forests.
It says they have greater value if treated as a carbon and biodiversity sink than if logged to produce mainly low-value products such as woodchips, pallets and power poles.
Released on Wednesday, the report recommends the government salvage and expand Australia’s struggling plantation sector by creating a state-owned national plantation estate to “increase our domestic timber independence”.
“Tasmanians will never forget how the last Labor-Green deal devastated the Tasmanian forest industry, the businesses and the families that relied on it, and 10,000 jobs were lost with most of those in regional Tasmania,” Mr Ellis said.
“We have already seen Labor Governments in Victoria and Western Australia cave to internal and external pressure and end native forestry, devastating timber towns.”
Mr Ellis said that Tasmanian Labor faced intensifying pressure to support ending native forestry from its own activist members, as well as the Tasmanians Greens.
He said acting Tasmanian Greens Leader, Rosalie Woodruff, had already “belled the Labor cat” saying that many Tasmanians expected Ms White to follow the lead of her mainland Labor colleagues and support ending native forestry in Tasmania.
“And things are no easier for Labor’s leader-in-waiting and ex-Kingborough council mayor Dean Winter with the Kingborough Labor branch proudly flying the Green flag and joining LEAN’s job-destroying campaign.
“If Mr Winter’s own branch won’t support native forestry, will he be forced to choose between backing timber workers’ jobs or his own?
“If Ms White wanted to show leadership, she could start by moving a motion to back in sustainable native forestry at next month’s ALP National Conference in Brisbane, rather than surrendering to the LEAN-Green activists in her party.”
Mr Ellis said that unlike the divided Tasmanian Labor, the Rockliff Liberal Government was rock-solid in its support for Tasmania’s forestry sector and timber workers.
