Comments attributable to Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP, Tasmanian Greens Leader:
In GBE Scrutiny Committee, Minister Eric Abetz refused to acknowledge he misled Parliament in August when he failed to table logging maps, despite it being revealed his government had them as far back as March 2022. He continued to obfuscate and mislead the GBE scrutiny committee, claiming he had no knowledge of the information.
Documents released under RTI yesterday, against the Liberal Government’s wishes, show they are planning a full-scale assault on over 39,000ha of Tasmania’s most significant biodiverse reserve forests – and have been planning it in secret for years.
Page after page confirms these forests are home to threatened and critically endangered species, like the masked owl, wedge-tailed eagle, Tasmanian devil and swift parrot – and contain Aboriginal heritage.
In the documents, Forestry Tasmania admit those 27 parcels of land consist of 6,864 ha of old growth forest, ecologically old growth forest with “negligible” past disturbance. Over 18,000 hectares are slated for logging in coupes with nearly 90% of the forest more than 80 years old, home to threatened and endangered species and Aboriginal heritage.
Some of the forests on the Liberals’ chopping block are around Beaconsfield, Lilydale, Scottsdale and – of course – in Takayna. North East and North West communities deserve to know what’s happening to forests they love.
The Greens have repeatedly questioned the government over their plan to log TFA-protected forests, and successive ministers have denied, obfuscated and misled not only the Parliament, but the people of Tasmania. Minister Abetz’s refusal to table the documents containing locations of planned logging was a gross abuse of Parliament and its scrutiny.
Deception is the hallmark of the Liberals in government.
In a global biodiversity and climate crisis, logging and burning these forests would be a crime against nature and future generations.
Comments attributable to Senator Nick McKim:
Forests Ministers Eric Abetz and Julie Collins are in lockstep on forest destruction. The establishment parties have overseen the destruction of vast swathes of native forests over many decades.”
This needs to change, and if we want change we have to vote for it.
These are hugely significant forests for Aboriginal cultural heritage, for threatened species and for their carbon value. They should be protected, not trashed by a mendicant industry and its political puppets in the Labor and Liberal parties.
The time to end native forest logging is right now
