Andrea Dawkins MP | Greens Tourism spokesperson
The Hodgman Government's plans to extend the Great Eastern Drive by upgrading Wielangta Road are threatened by their own political agenda.
Resources Minister, Guy Barnett's, commitment in Greens' Private Members time that the Liberals will stand by their plan to log the same forest is proof that their political point scoring trumps good sense.
Their politically motivated attack on Tasmania's 357 000 hectares of moratorium forests could see tourists sharing the road with log trucks and witnessing the clearfelling of the same, majestic forest that would bring them there.
Wilderness tourism, and industrial native forest logging and woodchipping cannot meaningfully coexist. It is delusional of Minister Barnett to say otherwise. He must know this and that's why he ruled out logging near the Three Capes Walk.
The Liberals should be protecting the visitor economy of the East Coast and Tasman regions. By not ruling out plans to log Wielangta Forest, as they have with the Tasman Forests adjoining the Three Capes Walk, they are putting the tourism businesses in those areas at risk.
By refusing to protect the forest surrounding the proposed tourist drive through Wielangta, the Liberals have clearly stated their commitment to politics before good sense and jobs in regional tourism.