Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Forests spokesperson
Another day in Tasmania, another handout to private forestry at public expense.
After late last year redirecting $7M allocated exit funding to keep people in the native forest industry, the Liberals are paying another $1M in compensation to forests contractors.
It's also now well understood that a number of industry players paid taxpayer money to exit native forest logging, pocketed the money and were back at work in the forests shortly after the Liberals took office.
When will this stop?
Resources Minister, Paul Harriss, keeps talking about how he is rebuilding the forest industry, despite the fact the real growth is in market demand for plantation and Forest Stewardship Council certified wood products.
Rather than again being compensated at public expense, forest workers displaced by the shift toward plantation products should be directed towards employment in the areas of sustainable jobs growth in the plantation sector.