The announcement today of a deal that halves Tasmania’s forest industry with no solution to protests in our forests shows what a fraudulent process the Labor/Greens government has conducted over the last year, Coalition Forestry spokesman Senator Richard Colbeck said.
“The Coalition said when Mr Kelty was appointed that we feared a political deal and that is just what we have,” Senator Colbeck said.
“There has been no assessment of forests, just arbitrary lock up based on green favourite places.
“There has been no consideration of the impact on other industries, particularly the mining industry. We have been locked out of our slice of the mining boom again by green ideology.
“The decision also punches a hole in the much vaunted food bowl vision with an estimated 100,000 hectares of agricultural land required for plantations to replace the native forest locked up.
“This deal provides no solution to Tasmania’s problems.
“Labor and the Greens are paying to shut down an industry at a time when thousands of jobs have been lost from this State.
“All through this process Labor members have laid silent, not one prepared to stand up for workers.
“At least in 2004 Dick Adams was prepared to stand up to Mark Latham – this time even he has gone missing,” Senator Colbeck said.
Media Contact: Deborah Cole (03) 6424 5960 or 0438 387 436
