Joan Rylah,Liberal Member for Braddon
Reckless protest stunts by the Bob Brown Foundation are blatantly disrupting work in our production forests and endangering workers.
The forestry operations undertaken by Sustainable Timber Tasmania is on land classified as a Permanent Timber Production Zone.
This is land agreed by all political parties during the Tasmanian Forest Agreement process as production forest area, with all operations undertaken in accordance with the Forest Practices Code – a world leading forest practices system regulated by the independent Forest Practices Authority.
The Hodgman majority Liberal Government has been working hard to rebuild the forestry industry since the disastrous Labor-Green era, and we are committed to ensuring the industry continues to grow.
The wood being sourced from these regions is critical to the ongoing viability of our important North-West timber mills.
The Government accepts the viewpoint of the experts: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO); and the International Energy Agency (IEA), that the sustainable management of forests, including a mixed strategy of conservation and timber production, is more likely to be optimal for atmospheric carbon reduction.
Tasmanians should be able to earn a living without trespassers interfering with their work, threats being made in an effort to shut down their business, or roads being obstructed in order to stop their business operations.
The Bob Brown Foundation will never be happy until all the land is locked up and there are no jobs left.
The Hodgman majority Liberal Government is committed to the right of people to protest, but not at the expense of the right of workers to earn a living or the right of lawful business to operate safely and free from interference and disruption.
