Business, Industry and Resources – Lorinna Coupes
There're some plantations growing in the upper reaches of the Lorinna area that are leased to Reliance Forest Fibre.
There're some plantations growing in the upper reaches of the Lorinna area that are leased to Reliance Forest Fibre.
Minister, I have a question about the veteran wellbeing vouchers. In the Budget, veteran wellbeing vouchers are listed as making up a component of support for veterans. They're small one-off payments of $100 each and that can be paid out twice per financial year, designed to allow veterans to access gyms or recreation centres at a discount rate.
Minister, the Sullivans Cove Planning Scheme has height limits for development on Macquarie Point and key sightlines from the Cenotaph are explicitly named and provided protection via criteria. Are you aware of this and do you accept that the purpose of those provisions is to protect the values of the Cenotaph and its reverential ambience from development?
Minister, I want to dig into any communications, if there have been any, between you and the Minister for Tourism. It's in relation to a $15 million major commitment to upgrades of three key reserves across the state, including the Dial Range, which is an icon of the north‑west. It is supposed to be about enhancing the visitor experience.
The reason the RSL is so passionate is that the Cenotaph was chosen as a site for its prominence. The hill where the Cenotaph now stands was the last thing of the city that departing World War I soldiers would see from their ships. That's why the sightlines are so important, including sightlines to the water, and that's why they're protected in the planning scheme. You, I know, minister, have been long aware of this. Did you ever advise the Premier of the unsuitability of Mac Point for the stadium before, during or after it was chosen by the AFL as the only site upon which to consider a stadium, despite at the time having numerous options?
I've got some questions about the $600,000 your department allocated to a strategic review of kunanyi/Mt Wellington in the Budget. I'd like a breakdown of how the $600,000 is planned to be spent and whether you are aware that the Wellington Park Management Trust had made a submission for $300,000 to the Treasury Structured Infrastructure Investment Review process for a business case? Were you aware of that when you announced your own strategic review?
Minister, I have a couple of questions about the expansion of the smolt hatchery at Whale Point in the Huon. Huon Aquaculture is proposing to intensify their production there from 500 tonnes to 786 tonnes standing biomass at any one time, and they're proposing to increase a maximum standing biomass of 1446 tonnes by adding an extra 660 tonnes of capacity.Can you please tell me whether the government will be subsidising this expansion and, if so, to what extent, and what the timeline you understand there will be for the expansion of that finfish industry in the Huon?
During the election campaign, one or the other of the Liberals election promises to existing Forestry Tasmania customers was that there would be 158,000 cubic metres of saw logs coming to them from Future Potential Production Forest (FPPF) land, the new land that you're intending on going into. How did you arrive at such a precise figure if you haven't actually found the land that you are seeking to convert?
On the question that you've asked many times who does forestry better than Tasmania, I think one obvious answer to that is any one of the more than 1500 jurisdictions in 83 countries that have managed to achieve Forest Stewardship Certification (FSC). Tasmania has not done that. In fact, Forestry Tasmania has twice tried and failed to get FSC. The reason for that has been their continued logging of swift parrot habitat. You can laugh, but that was the evidence that was provided from the certifiers at the last attempt of Forestry Tasmania.
On the 39,000-hectare conversion of high conservation‑value public forests, this was in your 100 day plan, this proud additional destruction of our forests. Can you tell me where the process is up to exactly in the conversion? As you mentioned before, there is a stage process under the Forestry (Rebuilding the Forestry Industry) Act. It has about eight steps to it. Can you please tell the committee where the process is up to there, and can you please provide us with a map or details of the areas that are being investigated?