Media reports that more than 300 Labor branches have backed a push to see native forestry* ended across the country increases the pressure on Rebecca White and Tasmanian Labor.
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.
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.
We have already seen Labor Governments in Victoria and Western Australia cave to internal and external pressure and end native forestry, devastating timber towns.
Tasmanian Labor faces intensifying pressure to support ending native forestry from its own activist members, as well as the Tasmanians Greens.
Acting Tasmanian Greens Leader, Rosalie Woodruff, has 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.
Unlike divided Tasmanian Labor, the Rockliff Liberal Government is rock-solid in our support for Tasmania’s forestry sector and timber workers.
^ABC Hobart Radio, 7am news, 26 July 2023
