The Tasmanian Greens today called on the Liberals to abandon their secret native forests sale or long term lease agenda.
Greens Forestry Spokesperson and member for Bass Kim Booth said that there is no doubt that the Liberals will do again what they did last time they were in power and that is the sale or lease of public forests.
“I have it from highly placed sources that the Liberals intend to sell, or lease Tasmanian publicly owned forests on a long term basis,” said Mr Booth.
“They did it with the Pine Forests and they are planning the same again.”
“The sale of the pine plantations has been an unmitigated disaster for the Scottsdale community, who ultimately lost their resource, their jobs and their economy.”
“The Liberals want to lock the public out of any decisions on forestry by selling or leasing them off to corporate absentee owners.”
“Selling or leasing the forests is the only way the Liberals can keep Forestry Tasmania alive and pay for their mad spending promises.”
“The forests will be the first publicly owned victim of their looming fire sale of public assets, acting under instructions from Abetz and Hockey.”
“Hodgman must unequivocally rule out the sale and if he won’t we know the game is definitely on,” said Mr Booth.