The Liberal government’s decision to cancel
State Parliament until next month has left Tasmania’s forestry industry in
limbo for at least a month.
A highly technical interpretation of delegations
made under the Forest Practices Act has thrown the legality of logging in the
state under a cloud and resulted in charges against anti-forestry protesters being
dropped.
It’s all very well for the Minister Guy Barnett
to say retrospective legislation will be drafted “urgently” to fix the problem
when State Parliament resumes.
But the chaos within this government has led to
the cancellation of next week’s sitting of the House of Assembly, meaning
Parliament won’t sit again until 3 May.
This is an urgent problem that needs to be
fixed to give certainty to the industry, and putting it off for almost another
month is not dealing with it urgently.
Instead, the Liberals have left the industry
open to more uncertainty and a month’s worth of pot shots from the Greens and
the Bob Brown Foundation.
Given that Parliament has only sat for nine
days this year, the cancellation of next week’s sitting is completely unnecessary
and has brought the working of government to a grinding halt.
Rather than fighting among themselves, the Liberals need to get their act together and get on with the job of governing Tasmania.
Shane Broad MP
Shadow Minister for Resources
