Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Honourable Speaker, the Greens have the same view as those expressed by Ms Dow and Dr Broad. It is illustrative of the interest the government has in matters other than making changes to legislation that Tasmania needs to update our huge legislative body of 650 acts. There is so much work that can be done to bring a better Tasmania for people today. Therefore, it speaks volumes about the focus of this government. They had a very long summer break. We have only been back for three weeks and there is absolutely nothing on the bill book. Instead, this government is consumed with flogging off our GBEs, and working full‑time, as a government body and as ministers, looking at portfolios and responsibilities to sell off, GBEs to privatise, the sale of which was never discussed with Tasmanians at the last election. There is no mandate.
They are also consumed with trying to push through a stadium and now, it seems, to push through a new process to fast-track the approval of the stadium, to override the planning process that is in train, to make sure Tasmanians do not get their fair say with the proposed hearings.
The government is consumed by other matters. It is clear when they have nothing on the books for us. We should be at work. That is what we are here to do. We had a very long break and it is time to knuckle down. The Greens support getting on with the business and putting a bit of fire under the government’s feet and making sure they do the job they are here to do.
I note that it is April, and the environment-trashing Forestry Tasmania (FT) is gearing up for its annual cheap-and-nasty burns designed to clean up the remains of forest after they have clear‑felled. This is beautiful native forests that, until recently, were biodiverse wonderlands containing animals and birds, plant communities like we see nowhere else on earth. These places, when they are clear‑felled and burned by Forestry Tasmania, have what FT calls ‘waste’, which makes up to 50 per cent of the material destroyed in logging operations. We know that about 90 per cent of the myrtle and sassafras, the incredible Tasmanian native hardwoods removed from the coupes, is exported overseas as woodchips. It is a shame.
Forestry Tasmania claims the burns are similar to the natural regeneration process that follows a bushfire. That is truly Trumpian in its deception of Tasmanians. They are nothing like that. Forestry Tasmania is planning approximately 140 massive burns. These will blanket Tasmania in health-damaging smoke pollution. Older people and those with respiratory illnesses are most seriously affected, but everyone is exposed to the small particulate materials. The science shows that no one is immune from the detrimental effects from this smoke pollution. They are very hot burns. They convert the above-and-below-ground carbon remaining in the forest to CO2.
That is the CO2 we are doing everything we can as a global community to make sure does not escape into the atmosphere and increase the heating of the planet, which is endangering us all. The estimated burns that Forestry Tasmania have – they estimated that there will be approximately 2 million tonnes annually, or 4 tonnes for every person in Tasmania, of carbon emissions, which is more than all of our vehicle fleet emissions.
These fires can and have escaped from Forestry Tasmania’s burns in the past. Most famously, they destroyed the biggest tree in Tasmania. They are not only shocking for the climate and for people’s health, they also seriously compromise our clean green brand and have serious and negative effects on other industries like tourism, wine production, honey production. We have heard from these businesses and industries in the past about the damaging effects of the massive smoke hazes that blanket huge regions.
The Greens will be standing with the wine growers and the beekeepers against these destructive fires.
Time expired
