Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Forests spokesperson
The Greens applaud the work of the brave forest defenders at the Bob Brown Foundation. BBF volunteers are at the frontline of stopping the drivers of the climate and biodiversity crisis which is being alarmingly accelerated by deforestation.
On behalf of the Tasmanian Greens and future generations, I thank them for their commitment to protecting lutruwita/Tasmania’s globally significant, carbon-rich old forests.
The trees being shipped to McKays are carbon-storing giants. Anyone driving past McKays can see enormous logs that have come from old growth forests like the Wentworth Hills, the Styx and the Florentine. These forests are also home to endangered and threatened Tasmanian species being driven to the brink by deforestation.
In a climate and biodiversity crisis, there’s no justification for native forest logging. It is a crime against Nature, and future generations.
Under the Liberals and Resources Minister, Guy Barnett, native forest logging for woodchips is intensifying and it’s being cheered on by Labor.
Young Tasmanians will look at the actions and words of Guy Barnett and Shane Broad with disbelief. They will think the age of the dinosaurs is still upon us, and they will judge them harshly.
Shane Broad is lying about the Greens supporting this devastation as a result of the Tasmanian Forest Agreement. He knows we did not support every aspect of the TFA, and that there was a Signatories Council process for contentious forests.
Labor’s reference to the TFA is petty, irrelevant and desperate. There is no TFA. The Liberals tore it up.
While the Liberals and Labor have decided to lock in behind the native forest logging industry, the Greens are standing with future generations and a safe climate.