Minister for Parks Jacqui Petrusma has today effectively locked up 22,500 hectares of the Liberals so called “wood bank.”
Hoping no-one was watching, Ms Petrusma tabled a paper foreshadowing the lock up at the end of Question Time in State Parliament.
That has left the Liberal’s no more lock ups commitment a smouldering wreck as a big chunk of the Future Potential Production Forests become reserves, conservation areas and national parks.
This is rank hypocrisy by a government which has campaigned over three elections now on a “no more lock ups” commitment only to now try attempt to sneak it into Parliament without debate or consultation with the timber industry.
This lock up is happening before the Rockliff-Ferguson Government completes its sustainable wood supply assessment due this year.
Sustainable Timbers Tasmania already cannot supply their contracted volumes of 137,000m of high-quality sawlog.
The Rockliff-Ferguson Government and Ms Petrusma are betraying the industry and their long held commitments to Tasmanians by shredding the state’s budget bottom line, surprising the salmon industry with a moratorium on expansion and now back flipping on their years of promising “no more lockups”.
| Shane Broad MP Shadow Treasurer |
