Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens' Leader and Forests spokesperson
Forestry Tasmania’s own High Conservation Value forest maps identify the Tarkine as one of the richest high conservation value locations in the State.
FT's new draft 'High Conservation Values Assessment and Management Plan' confirms the Liberal Government's continued destructive dishonesty over the Tarkine.
While the loggers prepare to plunder this ancient wilderness with Minister Barnett cheering them on, Forestry Tasmania's latest maps demonstrate that logging in the Tarkine cannot be justified on any scientific basis.
Most Tasmanians already know it doesn't stack up on a financial basis without their taxes propping up the industry.
Last year in Parliament, the Minister accidentally let slip that the Tarkine was one of Tasmania’s “prime tourism destinations”.*
His own agency, Forestry Tasmania, has confirmed the Tarkine's rich ecological and archaeological value.
Why does Minister Barnett want to log this treasure and deny the people of the North West the long term economic benefits of its protection as a world class National Park?
The only answer is it gives the Minister and his colleagues a political fight and a desperate, weak, divisive platform to run on in the lead up to the State election.
*http://www.premier.tas.gov.au/releases/ministerial_statement_-_forestry