The Liberals’ decision to remove protections on tens of thousands of hectares of high conservation value forest and hand them to industry for logging is appalling. This is devastating but, despite the climate crisis, not surprising.
For a decade Liberal politicians have gleefully cheerled the rapid destruction of vast swathes of Tasmania’s native forests.
Under the Liberals, the precious habitat of endangered species – like the swift parrot – has been logged, pushing them towards extinction. They’re responsible for the millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere as precious forests were torched with high intensity burns.
Not satisfied with their decade of destruction, now the Liberals have announced they are going to follow through on years of threats by expanding logging operations into 356,000 hectares of the high conservation value forests that are supposed to be protected.
This is pure politics in an election campaign. Their divisive decision is a climate crime, and will be opposed by Tasmanians from all walks of life.
Over the past ten years Liberal and Labor politicians have been in lockstep, cheering on the native forest logging industry. Given the Liberals’ announcement, the question now for Labor is simple – will they oppose this outright? Or will they fold once again, and back the Liberals, as they’ve done so many times before?
There’s no avoiding this question for Labor. Either they support keeping these high conservation value forests protected, or they support them being logged. It’s that simple.
For the sake of threatened species and the climate, we hope on this occasion Rebecca White and her colleagues will find a backbone and do the right thing.
