Tasmanian Greens MPs

Original Motion

That the House:—

(1)           Supports the Hodgman Majority Liberal Government’s Strategic Growth Plan for Tasmania Forests, Fine Timber and Wood Fibre.

(2)           Notes:—

(a)           our forest growth plan is built on the pillars of resource security, financial sustainability, job security, research and innovation, and a stronger role for the private sector;

(b)           that through the positive actions of the Hodgman Liberal Government we have seen a 70% increase in the volume of wood fibre delivered from the State’s sustainable production forests;

(c)           that the Labor Party’s revised State Platform commits Tasmanian Labor to support ‘the 2019 policy developed by Federal Labor to grow Tasmania’s forest industry’;

(d)           that Paragraph 73 of Chapter 4 of Labor’s National Platform is explicit: ‘Labor will continue to support the implementation of the Tasmanian Forestry Agreement (TFA) as a future pathway for the forest industry in Tasmania.  This includes providing resource security for the iconic special timbers industry, under agreed terms.  Labor supports this as a broad industry plan to achieve the outcomes intended from the TFA’;

(e)           that the Labor-Green Tasmanian forestry deal resulted in the loss of more than 4,000 jobs – two out of every three jobs in the industry;

(f)            that the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Rebecca White MP told the ABC on 20 March 2017 that she has ‘no regrets’ about this disastrous forestry deal; and

(g)           that the Greens policy is to close Tasmania’s native forestry industry.

(3)           Calls on Labor to abandon its plan for a return to the dark days of the TFA.