Forestry Tasmania debt guarantee increased to $41 million by State Government

Rosemary Bolger
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation),  9/6/15

Forestry Tasmania logging coupe

The Tasmanian Government has increased the level of debt it will guarantee for the state-owned forestry business.

Treasurer Peter Gutwein has revealed he signed off on another Letter of Comfort for Forestry Tasmania (FT) in February, increasing the debt level covered by $10 million to $41 million.

The letter allows the ailing business to continue operating in deficit.

Forestry Tasmania will also get a $30 million equity transfer from the state-owned energy business TasNetworks.

The reassurance was initially issued in 2009 to allow the state-owned lender Tascorp and Forestry Tasmania to negotiate new lending arrangements.

Greens treasury spokesman Nick McKim said Mr Gutwein had repeatedly failed to explain how Forestry Tasmania could ever pay back the money it owed.

"We know that Forestry Tasmania currently owes $27.8 million, yet the Treasurer has no idea whatsoever how and when FT can ever become financially viable," he said.

"The simple fact is that logging native forests is a loss making enterprise, and there is no realistic prospect of that changing in the future.

"It's now clear that Mr Gutwein has no plan for Forestry Tasmania except continuing to throw public funds at it and allowing it to rack up debts and sell assets."

UNESCO calls for changes to Tasmania's draft World Heritage management plan amid mining and logging fears

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 30 May 2015

A view of Cox Bight in Tasmania's World Heritage which is part of the South Coast Track (Dan Broun)

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee (WHC) is concerned about mining and logging under a draft management plan for Tasmania's World Heritage Area.

It wants the plan changed, and has stated that mineral exploration and exploitation is incompatible with world heritage status.

The Tasmanian Government is trying to change the way the state's 1.5 million hectare World Heritage Area is managed.

The existing management plan divides the area into four zones, while the new draft plan replaces the wilderness zone with a remote recreation zone.

In Paris overnight, UNESCO's WHC urged the draft plan be changed.

An initial review cited concerns that the plan appeared to create potential for logging operations and mining activity in the World Heritage Area.

It is also concerned that there is no clear identification of the area's cultural value.

A planned survey of the cultural attributes of Tasmania's World Heritage Area is due to be completed in 2018.

In its review of the draft management plan, the WHC said it had "repeatedly called" for a definition of the property's cultural value.

The committee recommended a mission of international experts be invited to Tasmania to review and provide advice for a survey and the revision of the draft management plan before any moves to finalise it.

'It's a wake-up call that we have to get it right'

Vica Bayley from the Wilderness Society said UNESCO delivered a damning rejection of Tasmania's draft management plan.

"It's a wake-up call that we have to get it right, we have to completely withdraw and redraft the management plan and we have to get on with the job of honouring the committee's request to engage with the Aboriginal community and properly understand and study the cultural heritage values of this area," he said.

Mr Bayley said it was uncommon for UNESCO to recommend sending a monitoring mission.

"I think that's significant in that it signals the committee has deep concerns over the management direction of the Hodgman Government, and that it wants to send its team out here to give advice and to assist with the development and finalisation of the management plan," he said.

"It demonstrates that the committee, I think, has lost confidence in the way Tasmania's wilderness World Heritage Area is being managed."

UNESCO last year rejected a bid from the Federal Government to delist more than 70,000 hectares of forest from the World Heritage Area.

The State and Federal Governments have been contacted for comment.

Minister to outline the future of Forestry Tasmania this week amid renewed calls for its scrapping

Stephen Smiley
ABC, 27 April 2015

The future of publicly-owned forestry company Forestry Tasmania will be mapped out during an address in State Parliament by Resources Minister Paul Harriss on Wednesday.

PHOTO: The State Opposition says Forestry Tasmania has been hanging in limbo waiting to hear if it had a future. (ABC News: Tony King)

Mr Harriss said the Government intended to keep its election promise on the company.

"The Government took to the election a commitment to put Forestry Tasmania onto a sustainable footing

Cabinet signed off on the Government's response to a report on the viability of Forestry Tasmania on Monday.

Mr Harriss said the Government intended to keep its election promise on the company.

"The Government took to the election a commitment to put Forestry Tasmania onto a sustainable footing into the future, and we intend to deliver," he said.

Mr Harriss said he and Treasurer Peter Gutwein received the departmental report a couple of weeks ago and have been "constructively" working through its recommendations.

The Minister said the Government engaged consultancy company Deloitte to help the review Forestry Tasmania's economic and operational models.

They made a blue when they committed to withdrawing funding from Forestry Tasmania.
Tasmanian Opposition Leader Bryan Green
The Tasmanian Greens renewed its calls for the State Government to scrap the company.

Greens leader Kim Booth said he was worried the Government's review would be superficial.

"What we've achieved here is a financial disaster," he said.

"The Government's internal review into Forestry Tasmania will be completely inadequate in terms of getting to the bottom of what's happened since 1994 to 2014, when they've shrunk the value from $2.27 billion, down to $160 million."

Opposition leader Bryan Green said workers had been in limbo for months because the Government had refused to rule out winding up the business.

"That chair of the board has had to write to Forestry Tasmania workers reassuring them the Government is, he believes, hopefully working in their best interests," he said.

"They made a blue when they committed to withdrawing funding from Forestry Tasmania."

Mr Harriss said it had not yet been decided if the report would be made public.

Native forest clearing on farms ban ditched by Tasmanian Government

ABC,  15 December 2014

Native forest clearing on farms ban ditched by Tasmanian Government - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

PHOTO: The plan to ban broad-scale land clearing on farms was due to come into effect next month. (Rose Grant)

The Tasmanian Government is confident a decision to scrap a plan to ban broad-scale land clearing will not breach its commitment to retain 95 per cent of the native forests that existed in 1996.

New rules that were expected to come into effect next month would have prevented farmers from clearing more than 20 hectares over five years.

But Resources Minister Paul Harriss has announced the limit will remain at 40 hectares a year while a review of the permanent native forest estate policy is undertaken.

"Business as usual will be available from the first of January 2015 to the first of January 2016," he said.

Mr Harriss said only 720 hectares were cleared last financial year.

"That 95 per cent of the native forest estate which existed in 1996 still has about 6,000 hectares in the bank," he said.

Vica Bayley of the Wilderness Society has warned broad-scale land clearing puts threatened species such as the orange-bellied swift parrot at risk.

VIDEO: Tas Government scraps ban on broad-scale land clearing (7pm TV News TAS)
"In some regions of Tasmania there's absolutely nothing left in the bank," he said.

Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association's Jan Davis said the move will allow them to expand crops to capitalise on the benefits of new irrigation schemes.

"If it frees up some land for us it's an important part of the overall picture," she said.

Farmers are also calling for compensation for decreases to land value due to caps on clearing.

The policy review will form part of the $500,000 review of the Regional Forests Agreement.

Forestry Tasmania posts $43m loss, minister blames peace deal

ABC News ,  Thu 30 Oct 2014

The minister blames the peace deal for Forestry Tasmania's financial woes.

PHOTO: The minister blames the peace deal for Forestry Tasmania's financial woes. (ABC, Jessica Kidd)

The Tasmanian Government is blaming the forest peace deal brokered under its predecessor for another big loss posted by Forestry Tasmania.

The Government-owned forest estate manager lost $43.1 million after tax in the financial year that ended in June.

That was despite the previous Labor-Greens government handing the company $37 million during the year in a bid to keep it solvent.

Resources Minister Paul Harris told Parliament the peace deal that led to the creation of new native forest reserves was to blame for the result.

"Forestry Tasmania has had another very challenging year," he said.

"It has advised me that the reduction in land area under the Tasmanian Forest Agreement (TFA) was a significant contributor to its difficulties."

Greens MP Nick McKim claimed the loss was the result of poor markets

Tasmanian forest world heritage decision 'will be accepted'

Oliver Millman

The Guardian, 23 June 2016

A United Nations decision on whether to allow the stripping of world heritage protection from swathes of Tasmanian forest will be adhered to, the Australian government has indicated.

Unesco’s World Heritage Committee has gathered in Doha, Qatar to determine its position on, among many other matters, whether to allow the removal of 74,000ha of forest from Tasmania’s world heritage area.

It’s expected that the committee will hand down its decision late on Monday night, Australian time. A draft ruling, following a recommendation by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, states that the boundary change, as requested by the Australian government, should not be permitted.

The Coalition formally requested the world heritage area to be shrunk earlier this year, citing economic benefits from opening up more forestry to logging. The government has argued that 74,000ha of the 170,000ha nominated by the previous Labor administration for world heritage protection is degraded by previous logging and development and should be excised from the area.

But ministers have indicated they will abide by the World Heritage Committee decision, should it confirm it has accepted expert opinion that the current boundary should remain.

A spokesman for Liberal senator Richard Colbeck, who has published a series of photographs showing degraded areas within the 74,000ha, told Guardian Australia the government would respect the Doha ruling.

“The decision will be accepted, whichever way it goes,” said the spokesman for Colbeck, who is the parliamentary secretary to the agriculture minister. “It’s all hypothetical until we hear, but we will move forward with whatever they decide.”

Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, was less definitive on the issue, telling the ABC that it was “a matter for the Tasmanian government”.

A spokeswoman for the Tasmanian government told Guardian Australia that it would also respect the outcome of the World Heritage Committee meeting.

“We continue to support the federal government in its decision to seek the delisting of 74,000 ha of world heritage area,” she said. “We will accept the umpire’s decision when it is made.”

In its recommendation to the World Heritage Committee, the IUCN stated that the Coalition’s request was “clearly inappropriate” and would "impact negatively on the outstanding universal value of the property" and "reduce integrity of key natural attributes".

The IUCN stated that, contrary to the government’s claim that the area was heavily degraded, 85% of the 74,000ha was natural forest, with 45% old-growth forest. Just 4% could be described as heavily disturbed by logging, roads and other infrastructure, the IUCN report found.

The Greens have called on the government to abandon its map-redrawing exercise, which would trim the protected area which covers much of southwestern Tasmania. Christine Milne, the Greens’ leader, has called the proposal a “demeaning act of environmental vandalism”.

Unesco has confirmed that the proposed boundary change is highly unusual as it comes just a year after the area was assessed to be of world heritage quality.

The world heritage listing was agreed following an agreement between conservationists, loggers and the government, in order to end decades of argument over the use of native forests for timber. The Coalition wants to scrap this agreement, arguing that it was hastily conceived by vested interests and unfairly locked out local communities and the logging industry.

“To assert that pine plantations, roads, high tension wires, eucalypt plantations is worthy world heritage preservation simply does not pass the common sense test,” Liberal senator Eric Abetz told Seven’s Sunrise show on Saturday.

Government stands firm on bid to reduce Tasmanian forest World Heritage listing

Felicity Ogilvie

ABC News 15 May 2014 

The Federal Government is ignoring a Senate inquiry's advice on a World Heritage-listed forest in Tasmania after the inquiry condemned plans to delist the forest.

PHOTO: The World Heritage committee will hand down its draft decision on the Tasmanian forest this week. (Rob Blakers: Supplied)

The extension of Tasmania's World Heritage area is the centrepiece of the so-called forest peace deal.

But the Coalition opposes the deal and say they want the World Heritage committee to reduce the Tasmanian extension by 74,000 hectares.

Greens leader Christine Milne is on the Senate Committee that has told the Government to stop trying to delist the forest.

"If a country like Australia decides that, as a result of a political whim, it can destroy its World Heritage area to facilitate logging, that will send a very clear message to other countries that they can adjust their boundaries for uranium mines or any other kind of mining, logging, tourism, development or whatever they like," she said.

"It would be a real blow to World Heritage globally."

Tasmanian Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck says the Government will push on with its request.

The area contains some plantations and areas that have been previously logged.

Senator Colbeck says it should never have been World Heritage.

"I think the Tasmanian community said at the federal election last September, and again at the state election in March, that they want to have a forest industry, they want to sensibly use our resources in Tasmania, but they also ... value and want to maintain the wilderness World Heritage values of the outstanding area that is the original estate," he said.

"So I think there's an opportunity to have win-win-win all round."

The World Heritage committee will hand down its draft decision this week.

Spokesman for the Tasmanian Special Timbers Alliance Andrew Denman is hoping the area's World Heritage status will be revoked.

Mr Denman builds boats out of specialty wood and he says the forest agreement and subsequent World Heritage listing is putting pressure on timber supplies.

"The TFA (Tasmanian Forest Agreement) has had a terrible impact on especially the timber sector," he said.

"We've seen a massive reduction in supply of timber, in some cases over 90 per cent for some species.

"We've also seen a doubling and sometimes a tripling of the resource price as well, all because of a political agreement to restrict access to a sustainable resource.

"So if the World Heritage committee decides not to approve the Federal Government's request to remove 74,000 hectares, obviously that 15,600 hectares of specialty timber area that could possibly be accessed will not be available and that will have an impact on industry."

Vica Bayley from the Wilderness Society is one of the environmentalists who negotiated the forest agreement and he wants to keep the World Heritage extension intact.

"The industry has restructured and, similarly, the specialty timber sector needs to readjust and accept that fact," he said.

"There are plenty of specialty timber operators and specialty timber workers that are saying, keep this World Heritage list, keep the Tasmanian Forest Agreement, and let's work with what we have."

Environmentalists have already been back into the forests protesting against the World Heritage delisting.

Mr Bayley says delisting of the World Heritage forest will spark more protests.

"If these World Heritage listed forests are indeed delisted and they are indeed logged, clearly people will continue to stand up for their protection," he said.

"Not only here in Tasmania, but across Australia and around the world. And, that's not only people that care about the forests; that's people that care about markets and where they get their wood from."

Environmentalists will travel to Doha next month to lobby the World Heritage committee when it makes its final decision on Tasmania's forests.

PM Tony Abbott hopes for 'renaissance of forestry' following Liberal election victory in Tasmania

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 17 March 2014

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has reaffirmed his commitment to seek to remove 74,000 hectares of Tasmanian forest from the World Heritage List as part of a "renaissance of forestry" in the state.

The newly-elected Liberal Government in Tasmania, led by Premier-elect Will Hodgman, has promised to rip up the state's Forestry Agreement as well as re-open listed forests to logging.

Under the Tasmanian peace deal, 170,000 hectares of forest was added to the World Heritage area.

Mr Abbott says the Federal Government is committed to growing the forestry industry in the state.

"We want to see a renaissance of forestry in Tasmania," he said.

"Will Hodgman wants to see a renaissance of forestry in Tasmania and we'll work very constructively with the new state government to try to make that happen."

The Prime Minister declared earlier this month that too many of Australia's forests are "locked up".

He has vowed to set up a new advisory council to support the timber industry.

"We have quite enough national parks. We have quite enough locked up forests already. In fact, in an important respect, we have too much locked up forest," Mr Abbott told a timber industry dinner in Canberra earlier this month.

The Federal Government argues part of the land locked up in Tasmania's World Heritage area has already been partially logged or degraded and it should be opened up to the forestry industry.

Liberals post best-ever Tas results

Tasmania's Liberals posted their best-ever election result on Saturday night, claiming at least 14 of the 25 seats on offer on the back of a 12 per cent swing.

It ends Mr Hodgman's reign as the country's longest-serving opposition leader.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten believes state Labor's power-sharing deal with the Greens cost the party at the ballot box.

After 16 years in power Labor suffered its worst result in six decades, winning 27 per cent of the vote and just six seats.

Premier Lara Giddings dumped the Greens from Cabinet shortly before announcing the election date.

Mr Shorten says the years in partnership were not good for the Labor brand.

"In Tasmania the Labor government had been in for 16 years that's a very long time and there's no doubt that Labor having an agreement [with the Greens] was marked down by Tasmanian voters," he said.

Meanwhile, the state's electoral commission has revealed 163 postal votes were destroyed after they were irreparably damaged by a letter-opening machine.

More than 2,300 ballot papers for the Hobart-based seat of Denison were damaged during preparation for the count on Saturday evening.

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission (TEC) said 2,175 ballot papers were repaired but 163 were damaged so badly they had to be counted as informal.

The incident has been blamed on the machine not being used properly and poor quality control.

State Electoral Commissioner Julian Type said it was not likely to impact the result.

Goodies and baddies lost in Tasmanian logjam, PM Tony Abbott will find

Richard Denniss

The Canberra Times, March 15, 2014

Fairytales of the forest could have an unhappy ending for Tasmania's jobless, as the Prime Minister will soon learn.

According to Tony Abbott, loggers are "the ultimate conservationists". Seriously. Photo: Steven Siewert

Tony Abbott recently described the people who take the chainsaws to Tasmania's native forests as ''the ultimate conservationists''.

Seriously. In his speech to the 2014 Forestworks Dinner, the Prime Minister claimed that because the loggers' future income depends on the availability of trees, they - and not the derided greenies - are the true custodians of our wilderness.

By that logic, the men who fire explosive-tipped harpoons into whales in the Southern Ocean would fit the Abbott definition of ''real conservationists''. Indeed, any self-respecting rhino poacher in Africa must surely see themselves as a far-sighted conservationist.

But the illogic of the Prime Minister's speech didn't stop there. Having defined the native forest loggers as the real conservationists, Mr Abbott went on to explain that his government's determination to remove 74,000 hectares of Tasmanian forest from the World Heritage Listing was based on the fact the areas were no longer ''pristine'' because, wait for it, some of them have been previously logged.

It seems that whoever wrote the first part of the speech didn't bother to talk to whoever wrote the second part, and in turn that the Prime Minister didn't read it before he gave it. Surely a Rhodes Scholar would have picked up a howler like that?

Or perhaps not. Maybe in the modern political world the debate moves so fast that facts and consistency are not as important as headlines and campaign bunting.

But even if the modern political speech is nothing more than a sound-grab looking for a photo opportunity, Mr Abbott's recent effort deserves closer scrutiny. It may well be the silliest speech given by a prime minister in recent years, but it certainly tells us a lot about his world view and the kind of decisions he is likely to make.

As with his approach to foreign policy, this speech assures us the Prime Minister sees economic debates in terms of ''goodies'' and ''baddies'' as well.

When it comes to Tasmania's forests, the ''goodies''' in this speech were obviously the ''ultimate conservationists'' - also known as the loggers. And the ''baddies'' in the story were the environmentalists who want to ''lock up the forests''.

The baddies, we are told, want to ''ban men and women from enjoying'' the environment, while of the goodies, Mr Abbott says, ''you intelligently make the most of the good things that God has given us''. By that he presumably means knocking down trees with bulldozers and dropping napalm from helicopters on what's left behind.

Having introduced the heroes and villains of his story, the Prime Minister's speech turns to the ''great quest''. Along with our heroes the loggers, Mr Abbott simply wants to create jobs and prosperity for the people of Tasmania. But to succeed in this mission, he must first vanquish the villains who have been holding Tasmania's jobs captive in their World Heritage-listed forests. ''We want the timber industry to be a vital part of Australia's economic future,'' he told the loggers.

But this is where the fairytale and economic reality begin to diverge. While there is no doubt Mr Abbott and the loggers want the logging industry to grow, the problem is the overseas customers don't. The world is buying less timber as more high-rise housing is built from concrete and steel, and when the world does buy timber it prefers softwood such as pine rather than the hardwoods found in Tasmania's magnificent forests, and when the world's consumers do want hardwood they prefer it to come from plantations rather than native forests.

The car industry is leaving Australia because the world doesn't want to buy the kind of cars we like to make and because overseas consumers can get the cars they do like from cheaper places than Australia.

While Mr Abbott has said no government ever subsidised their way to prosperity, and Treasurer Joe Hockey has said he wants to end the age of entitlement, the Coalition government seems determined to prop up the Tasmanian native forest loggers while waving a cheerful farewell to the car industry.

Over the past 25 years, the loggers have received more than $750 million to ease the pain associated with the fact the world doesn't want to buy their product any more.

When digital cameras replaced film cameras, the photo development labs didn't get a cent. But despite the fact the loggers' falling fortunes have been softened by an enormous mattress made of taxpayer cash, the Coalition is now painting the loggers as the victims.

While the brave loggers battling against the evil greenies may well make for the kind of simple story political strategists love these days, such stories do nothing to help the 19,000 unemployed people in Tasmania. Given that native forest logging employs only about 1 per cent of Tasmanians, it should come as no surprise the vast majority of Tasmania's jobless have never, and will never, work in the native forest logging industry.

While in the vacuum of modern political debate being ''anti-environmentalist'' means you must be ''pro-jobs'', the reality of the Tasmanian state economy is that 99 per cent of the population are not employed in native forest logging. Even if the Prime Minister's strategically selected sound bites combined with another truckload of taxpayer cash managed to double the size of the native forest logging industry, it would still be a tiny employer.

Indeed, even at twice its current size, native forest logging would still be dwarfed by the tourism industry, and Tasmania's unemployment rate would still be the highest in the country. Tasmania used to be the hub of whaling on the east coast of Australia. Men with saws once cut enormous trees and sold Australia the wood we once wanted. But, as with whale oil, the Australian public doesn't want to buy native forest hardwood any more. If they want hardwood, it's cheaper and better for the environment to get it from plantations. And when the world's paper mills want woodchips, they prefer the cheaper plantation product too.

There is nothing to stop the Prime Minister telling himself, or the public, fairytales about goodies and baddies and the quest to find jobs in magical forests. But there is no chance such stories will solve Tasmania's problems. Mr Abbott promised to create a million new jobs before the last election, and so far he is lagging badly. Speeches such as last week's might gee up the troops and shift the blame, but they do nothing to solve the underlying problems.

Dr Richard Denniss is executive director of the Australia Institute, a Canberra-based think tank, www.tai.org.au

Last-minute plea to keep Tasmania’s forest peace deal intact as Liberals head to likely election win

MATT SMITH, MERCURY
Perth Now,  MARCH 14, 2014

ENVIRONMENTAL groups and timber workers have joined forces in launching a last-minute plea for the Liberals to change their mind on ripping up the Tasmanian Forest Agreement.

Signatories to the peace deal said yesterday the Liberals would be taking the state back to the bad old days of the forest wars that tarnished the state for decades.

But the Liberal Party yesterday remained unmoved and reaffirmed its belief it would have a mandate to rip up the agreement if it sweeps into power tomorrow.

MANDATE ON FORESTS

The calls come as a Newspoll shows the Liberals are headed into the election in considerably better shape than 2010.

In the week before the 2010 election, which resulted in Labor and the Liberals securing 10 setats each and the Greens five, the polling results were tigher — the Liberals holding 39 per cent compared with Labor (36.9) and the Greens (21.6).

WHAT THE POLLS SHOWED

The Newspoll, undertaken this week and published in The Australian today, shows the popularity of the Liberals at 53 per cent compared with Labor (23 per cent) and the Greens (16 per cent).

Opposition leader Will Hodgman said he would not be bullied on the forestry issue.

“We do not support the forest deal, it failed on so many fronts,” Mr Hodgman said.

“I am in no doubt we can continue to sell our world-class products including those out of our forests.

“I am happy to talk to anyone but will not be held to ransom by Green groups who want to close the industry down.’’

CFMEU national president Forestry & Furnishing Products Division Jane Calvert joined forces with the environmental groups yesterday calling on the Liberals to rethink their vow.

CFMEU spokesman Jane Calvert wants the Liberals to rethink their pledge to rip up the forest peace deal.

“When the timber workers’ union sat down to break bread with our traditional enemies — the conservationists — back in 2010, we did so for good reason,” Ms Calvert told the Mercury yesterday.

“The agreement and its legislation are far from perfect.

“But in the four years since talks began, no political party, political leader or critic of the agreement has put forward a credible alternative to address the impending change in resource, shifting market preference and need for investment.

“The agreement and legislation have resulted in an unprecedented cessation of conflict in the forest, and growing confidence in markets.”

Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley and Environment Tasmania spokesman Phil Pullinger appeared to be choosing their words carefully yesterday, stating they were still committed to the agreement.

Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley has been chosing his words carefully in relation
But the pair also made it clear they could no longer offer their support, and endorsement, to overseas and domestic markets if reserves under the agreement were scrapped by the Tasmanian Liberals.

“It does not take too much creativity from any of us to think about what will happen if they start logging World Heritage forests,” Mr Bayley said.

matthew.smith@news.com.au

Liberals warned over TFA stance

Rosemary Bolger
The Examiner (Launceston), 14 March 2014

ENVIRONMENT groups have stepped up the pressure on the Liberal Party, warning there will be no such thing as non-contested wood if the Tasmanian Forests Agreement is torn up.

At the final stage of the election campaign, the Wilderness Society and Environment Tasmania urged the Liberal Party to rethink their plan to tear up the deal, but stopped short of issuing a threat.

"It is the Liberal Party that will be making a choice to remove the capacity for the industry to have a stable future," Dr Phill Pullinger said.

"This is a package deal. It was, it is, a finely-balanced agreement, and you can't pull out one thread."

The groups have welcomed timber veneer company Ta Ann Tasmania's commitment to only source wood from outside areas that are protected under the deal, even if the Liberals reopen them to logging.

However, that doesn't guarantee support for the company's products made from the so-called "non-contentious" areas, if it's not underpinned by the TFA.

"The whole industry becomes contentious again," Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley said.

He rejected the Liberals' claim to have a mandate to unwind the agreement.

Liberals forestry spokesman Peter Gutwein said he would not be "greenmailed".

"Threats by environmental groups that the Liberals plan to rip up the sham forestry deal will reignite protests will not sway a majority Liberal government from taking the action needed to rebuild our forest industry," Mr Gutwein said.

Labor has vowed to continue to implement the Tasmanian Forests Agreement. That is the key plank of the party's forestry policy unveiled yesterday at Ta Ann's Smithton mill.

Deputy Premier Bryan Green said a re-elected Labor government would also negotiate a new regional forest agreement with the Commonwealth.

The policy includes $5.8 million in new spending, including money for research into plantation products, $1.5 million to offset costs of transporting forest residues to Bell Bay, and more assistance for workers.

Mr Green said the Liberals had failed to provide a credible alternative.

Tasmania's World Heritage Area: World Heritage Committee advisor raises concerns over plan to reduce protected area

Jake Sturmer, environment reporter
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Thu 13 Mar 2014

Senator Colbeck has published photographs he says show recent harvesting in some of the extended world heritage listed areas

PHOTO: The Coalition Government vowed to reduce the World Heritage area as part of an election commitment.

A key advisor to the World Heritage Committee has flagged concerns with the Federal Government's plan to delist 74,000 hectares of Tasmania's World Heritage Area.

In 2013, the committee approved an extension to the area, adding about 172,000 hectares to take the total protected area to about 1.6 million hectares.

The Federal Government vowed to reduce the area to help Tasmania's economy as part of an election commitment.

As part of the World Heritage Area boundary change, areas of the Southern Forests, the Styx and the Florentine were given protection.

The Government has said areas of genuine high conservation value are not part of the delisting plan, including tall forests in the Great Western Tiers.

A Senate inquiry is investigating the issue and in a submission, the Australian arm of the International Council on Monuments and Sites said it believed allowing the reduction in the area would likely reduce the credibility of the World Heritage listing.

The council is one of three advisory bodies for the World Heritage Committee and provides evaluations of cultural and mixed properties proposed for inscription on the World Heritage List.

"We are alarmed that this proposal ... fails to respect that due process was followed by the World Heritage Committee and that Outstanding Universal Value has been established as a prerequisite for the decision to support the 2013 Boundary Modification," the submission said.

We hence query how the Australian Government states it believes the excision of identified areas from the property will enhance the credibility of the World Heritage Listing.
International Council on Monuments and Sites submission
"We hence query how the Australian Government states it believes the excision of identified areas from the property will enhance the credibility of the World Heritage Listing.

"The opposite seems more likely."

The council's submission said it was too early to suggest any changes to the boundaries.

"As the Australian Government is to submit a progress report on this assessment of cultural values ... in 2015, it is premature to be proposing any modification before that time," it said.

"The evaluation of cultural values is a priority and no boundary modifications should be considered until that report is provided."

What do you think about the plans to delist part of Tasmania's World Heritage Area? Have your say
In its submission, the Institute of Foresters of Australia said the World Heritage Committee made its 2013 decision based on a flawed assessment from the previous federal government.

"The process and conclusions were in fact a hasty and superficial analysis of conservation values where no peer review was undertaken," it said.

"Many claims and conclusions were based on limited information.

"These claims were open to scientific interpretation and, in many situations, have been shown to be in error."

The IFA said it supported a reassessment of the 2013 decision.

'Degraded' forests detract from World Heritage Area: Hunt

Environment Minister Greg Hunt last month said he supported most of the 2013 extensions to the World Heritage area, but that large parts had already been logged.

Mr Hunt said the area was added amidst "enormous local controversy" and was against the wishes of some in the community.

"What has been put to the committee for reconsideration is 117 degraded or logged areas, so these were areas that many people feel should never have been added because they significantly detract from what is one of the great World Heritage Areas," he said at the time.

Mr Hunt has been contacted for comment.

Tasmania's forest peace deal was designed to end decades of conflict.

Under the deal, environment groups are supporting the timber industry in exchange for old growth forests being protected in the 172,000 hectare boundary extension.

Tasmania's Liberal leader Will Hodgman has said he will tear up the agreement if he wins office in Saturday's election.

Abbott's address triggers 'unprecedented' move by WCPA

Meanwhile 114 members of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) have written to the Prime Minister, criticising his comments that Australia had "enough national parks".

Tony Abbott told a timber industry dinner this month that too many of Australia's forests are "locked up".

The WCPA's vice chair Marc Hockings says those remarks triggered serious concerns among its members, prompting the commission to take the "unprecedented" step.

"This was really the most recent in what we see as a large number of examples where governments around Australia have been stepping back from a commitment to national parks and protected areas," he said.

"Even though WCPA is very much a non-political organisation, we needed to stand up and strongly make the point that national parks and protected areas are really important for our society."

The WCPA is a body of experts that advises governments and organisations around the world on conservation issues.

Lawyers, scientists and conservationists were among 114 Oceania members to sign the letter.

The commission is part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is also one of the key advisors for the World Heritage Committee.

But Professor Hockings says they are completely disconnected from the committee's upcoming decision about the Tasmanian forests or Great Barrier Reef.

"The decisions and recommendations of IUCN that will go to the World Heritage Committee meeting are not prepared by the Australian members of IUCN," he said.

"But I think that's another example of the way in which we've seen the retreat from a commitment to protected areas."

The Prime Minister's office has been contacted for comment.

Do you know more about this? Email investigations@abc.net.au

Former forestry boss warns of heritage risk to international markets

Anne Mather 

The Mercury,  March 06, 2014 

TONY Abbott’s push to scrap parts of the World Heritage Area risks scaring off Tasmania’s world markets, the Labor Party has warned.

Critics warned the Prime Minister’s push to unlock parts of the WHA and create a new forestry advisory council would reignite the forestry wars, send jitters through markets and cost jobs.

Deputy Premier Bryan Green and former Forestry Tasmania managing director Bob Gordon, who is running as a Labor candidate in Lyons, said Mr Abbott’s stance would do more harm than good.

“I think any move to remove areas that are already World Heritage runs the severe risk that Tasmania will lose its forest certification,” Mr Gordon said at his campaign launch yesterday.

Mr Gordon said any product harvested from an area that was once WHA would “never be purchased by any customer in the world”.

Mr Green warned Australia would be internationally embarrassed if it repealed a WHA listing.

“The Liberals are suggesting that by repealing world heritage and high conservation forests that that will somehow save the industry. That’s rubbish because what chance would Tasmanian timber from those areas ever have of being sold anywhere around the world?” Mr Green said.

The comments follow Mr Abbott’s speech to a forestry industry dinner in Canberra on Tuesday night, in which he said too much of Tasmania’s forests were “locked up”.

Mr Abbott outlined the Federal Government’s push to revoke the recent addition of 74,000ha into WHA listing.

“We don’t support, as a Government and as a Coalition, further lock-ups of our forests,” Mr Abbott said.

“We have quite enough national parks. We have quite enough locked up forests already. In fact, in an important respect, we have too much locked up forest.”

Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley said Mr Abbott was courting conflict.

Australian Workers’ Union national secretary Paul Howes, who was in Hobart yesterday, said Labor knew how to protect the environment and jobs.

Tony Abbott says too much Tasmanian forest 'locked up', forms new council to support timber industry

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 5 March 2014

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declared that too many of Australia's forests are "locked up" and vowed to set up a new advisory council to support the timber industry.

Speaking at a timber industry dinner in Canberra last night, Mr Abbott also recommitted to repealing part of Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area made under the forest peace deal.

His comments have prompted anger from the Greens, who have labelled him the "dig it up, cut it down Prime Minister".

Under the Tasmanian peace deal, 170,000 hectares of forest was added to the World Heritage area.

The Government has formally asked the World Heritage Committee to delist 74,000 hectares - a position Mr Abbott reaffirmed last night.

"We don't support, as a Government and as a Coalition, further lock-ups of our forests. We just don't support it," Mr Abbott said.

"We have quite enough national parks. We have quite enough locked up forests already. In fact, in an important respect, we have too much locked up forest.

"Why should we lock up as some sort of World Heritage sanctuary country that has been logged, degraded or planted for timber?

"Getting that 74,000 hectares out of World Heritage Listing, it's still going to leave half of Tasmania protected forever, but that will be an important sign to you, to Tasmanians, to the world, that we support the timber industry."

Do you think Australia has enough national parks and protected forests? Have your say.
Mr Abbott told the dinner that Tasmania's forest workers have a friend in Canberra.

"When I look out tonight at an audience of people who work with timber, who work in forests, I don't see people who are environmental vandals; I see people who are the ultimate conservationists," he said.

"And I want to salute you as people who love the natural world, as people who love what Mother Nature gives us, and who want to husband it for the long-term best interests of humanity."

Greens condemn 'massive assault on the environment'

But Greens leader Christine Milne says the Prime Minister's words send a clear message to the world "that Australia does not value its world heritage areas or its national parks".

"People are going to be pretty upset that Tony Abbott is mounting this massive assault on the environment," she said.

Any move to repeal the World Heritage classification on Tasmanian forests would ultimately prove destructive to the state's logging industry, she added.

"Tony Abbott has got it so wrong. The logging industry was on its knees in Tasmania because around the world nobody wants to buy timber products that come from old growth forest," she said.

"There's now a high level of recognition that we need to be protecting the last of our primary forests around the world."

VIDEO: Abbott a 'dig it up, cut it down' prime minister, says Greens (ABC News)
Senator Milne said a recent "peace deal" with Tasmania's conservation movement had given loggers "some chance of a future in the plantations", but that Mr Abbott had threatened to "send Tasmania back to decades of conflict".

"What he'll actually do is destroy the forest industry, not to mention Tasmania's clean, green and clever brand which is our main asset and that comes from our World Heritage area," she said.

Mr Abbott also used his address criticised the Tasmanian Greens for everything from the state's ailing economy to its poor educational outcomes.

"We all know Tasmania has the lowest wages in Australia, it has the lowest GDP per head, it's got the lowest life expectancy, it's got the lowest educational retainment in the country and it's got the highest unemployment, and funnily enough for the last eight years it has had a government in large measure dominated by the Greens," he said.

While appointments to the new Forestry Advisory Council are still being finalised, Institute of Foresters national director Rob De Fegely has been named as co-chair.

Is forestry the backbone of the Tasmanian economy?

Infographic from The Australia Institute

For more information see Chipping away at Tasmania's future, The Australia Institute 

No more national parks as Tony Abbott pledges to support loggers as the 'ultimate conservationists'

Matthew Knott
The Age, March 5, 2014

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said he will not support the creation of any more national parks in a speech lauding timber workers as "the ultimate conservationists".

Mr Abbott also told a timber industry dinner on Tuesday night that he would create a new Forestry Advisory Council to support the industry.

The council will be co-chaired by Rob de Fegely, President of the Institute of Foresters Australia. Mr de Fegely is former Liberal Party election candidate for the seat of Eden Monaro.

''We don't support, as a government and as a Coalition, further lockouts of our forests,'' Mr Abbott said.

''We have quite enough National Parks, we have quite enough locked up forests already. In fact, in an important respect, we have too much locked up forest.''

Mr Abbott said the federal government was pushing to delist a world heritage listing of 74,000 hectares of forest in Tasmania. Mr Abbott said the area – which was protected under Tasmania's forest peace deal – was not pristine forest and was too degraded to be considered a sanctuary.

Tasmanians go to the polls on March 15 with jobs and the forestry industry big issues as Labor struggles to hold onto government.

''I don't buy the Green ideology, which has done so much damage to our country over the last couple of decades and I'm pleased to see that there are some sensible Labor Party people who don't buy it either,'' Mr Abbott said.

''[W]hen I look out tonight at an audience of people who work with timber, who work in forests, I don't see people who are environmental bandits, I see people who are the ultimate conservationists.
''I salute you as people who love the natural world, as people who love what Mother Nature gives us and who want to husband it for the long-term best interests of humanity.''

Mr Abbott said Canberra would now be ''friendly country'' rather than ''hostile territory'' for the forestry industry following the change of government.

Address to the 2014 ForestWorks Dinner, Canberra

Tony Abbott, Prime Minister of Australia
pm.gov.au, Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Julie, I want to thank you very much indeed for that kind introduction. It’s nice to have a list of things recounted to an appreciative audience – it really is nice.

But the most important fact, at least insofar I suspect as this audience is concerned, is omitted from the official resume, because I had the great good fortune of having as my maternal grandfather a shipwright and as many of you would know a shipwright is a marine carpenter. That’s what a shipwright is. A shipwright is a marine carpenter, at least that’s what a shipwright was back in the 1920s when many of our large ships were still made of timber.

My carpenter granddad recruited me to help build a workbench for the new family home when I was in year seven. He joined me in building a timber canoe which I paddled around the Lane Cove River National Park in year eight. He got me to help him to build a large timber shed down the back of my mum and dad’s place when I was in year 9 and for my sixteenth birthday when I was in year ten he gave me a toolset which, until just a couple of years ago when it was lost in a flash flood at home, was still the tools which I used around the house to do the kinds of things which every half useful husband should be able to do!

I can’t say that having a shipwright grandfather made me a craftsman; it didn’t. I didn’t develop the extraordinary craftsmanship of Marty Teare who presented me earlier today with a truly magnificent example of an Australian-made chair which will adorn my parliamentary office - I hope for many years to come.

I didn’t become a craftsman, but I did learn to appreciate the value of timber and the importance of working with one’s hands.

I came to appreciate the forest wasn’t just a place of beauty, but it was a source of resources; of the ultimate renewable resource, of the ultimate biodegradable resource.

So when I look out at an audience such as this this evening, when I look out tonight at an audience of people who work with timber, who work in forests, I don’t see people who are environmental bandits, I see people who are the ultimate conservationists. That’s what I see and I want to salute you. I salute you as people who love the natural world, as people who love what Mother Nature gives us and who want to husband it for the long-term best interests of humanity.

I want to say this: we will never build a strong economy by trashing our environment, but we will never help our environment by trashing the economy either.  You understand - what I regret to say not everyone does – that it is possible to combine respect for the environment and respect for nature with healthy private business.

Man and the environment are meant for each other. The last thing we do – the last thing we should want – if we want to genuinely improve our environment is to want to ban men and women from enjoying it, is to ban men and women from making the most of it and that’s what you do. You intelligently make the most of the good things that God has given us.

So my friends, when I say that I want Australia to be open for business, I mean open for business for the forestry industry.

When I say that Australia is not only open for business, but it is under new management, I mean that the people in charge in Canberra – here – value what the forestry industry does and it would be quite a long time since you’ve experienced that in Canberra.

I hope that you will be the beneficiaries of the general economic policies that the Coalition is putting into practice.

You will benefit from the abolition of the carbon tax, ultimately from the abolition of the mining tax.

Many of you will benefit from the cutting of the company tax rate.

Most of you will benefit from the reduction in red and green-tape that we are determined to deliver.

And while it’s not the job of the national government to build the kind of country roads and logging trails which you’re all very familiar with, if we do invest more, as we will and are, in the major infrastructure that our country needs, that obviously means that state and local governments can do more for the kind of infrastructure that you depend upon in your daily life.

I am pleased to say that in the six months since the change of government here in Canberra, Greg Hunt, an Environment Minister who appreciates that the environment is meant for man and not just the other way around, has provided environmental approvals for projects worth some $400 million. I am pleased and proud to have an Environment Minister who wants to see projects go ahead.

I am pleased that because of Greg Hunt’s good work, we now have assessment bilaterals – a one stop shop in other words – for environmental approvals with New South Wales and Queensland, and are working on these with the other states and have high hopes of getting there well before the end of the year.

I’m pleased that we’ve also got a Korean free trade agreement and are working well towards free trade agreements with Japan and with China.

But you’re not just any other industry. You are an industry which has been officially frowned upon for too long.

For three years you were officially frowned upon here in Canberra because we had – I regret to say – a government that was over influenced by the Greens.

I’m delighted to see a number of Labor Members of Parliament in the audience tonight – I see Joel Fitzgibbon. I see Brendan O’Connor. I think Senator Kim Carr is here in the audience. It’s good to see some Labor Members who aren’t embarrassed at coming to a dinner with foresters! Give them the applause they deserve.

Coalition Members – too numerous to mention – all of you, because this is a Coalition. This is a Liberal/National Coalition that values what you do and wants you to be able to make the most of your life.

We don’t support, as a Government and as a Coalition, further lockouts of our forests. We just don’t support it.

We have quite enough National Parks, we have quite enough locked up forests already. In fact, in an important respect, we have too much locked up forest.

One of the first acts of the incoming Government was to begin the process to try to get out of world heritage listing 74,000 hectares of country in Tasmania, because that 74,000 hectares is not pristine forest. It’s forest which has been logged, it’s forest which has been degraded, in some cases, it’s plantation timber that was actually planted to be logged.

Now I’m all in favour of protecting pristine wilderness in proportion – I am all in favour of that. But why should we lock up, as some kind of world heritage sanctuary, country which has been logged, degraded or planted for timber? Why should we do that? Frankly, when this Government comes across examples of actions which are contrary to common sense, we do our best to reverse them. That’s what we do – we try to ensure that government does not do that which is contrary to common sense.

You know, getting that 74,000 hectares out of the world heritage listing is still going to leave half of Tasmania protected forever, but that will be an important sign to you, to Tasmanians and to the world that we respect the timber industry and we want the timber industry to have a vigorous and dynamic future, not just a past. We want the timber industry to be a vital part of Australia’s economic future, not just something that was a relic of our history. That’s what this Government wants.

I don’t buy the Green ideology which has done so much damage to our country over the last couple of decades and I’m pleased to see that there are some sensible Labor Party people who don’t buy it either. I know they’re a minority inside their own Party, but I applaud those who don’t buy the Green ideology. You only have to look – and I see Joel smiling - probably the influence of Madam Speaker sitting next to you. I know you want to stay here Joel, not to be expelled.

But the Green ideology has done so much damage to Tasmania. We all know that Tasmania has the lowest wages in our country. It’s got the lowest GPD per head in our country. It’s got the lowest life expectancy in our country. It’s got the lowest education attainments in our country and it’s got the highest unemployment in our country and funnily enough, for the last eight years it’s had a government, in large measure, dominated by the Greens. For the last four years it’s had a government which was Green dominated, even though prior to that election, the leader of the government said that it would never happen – well, sadly it did happen. The deal with the devil that was never going to happen did happen and I say, the only way to ensure that this Green ideology which has done so much damage to Tasmania and more recently done so much damage to our country, is expunged, is not just to change the government in Canberra but to change the government in Hobart as well.

I promised my great friend that I was not going to make a party political speech tonight and I said nothing about the ALP here in Canberra at this present time, because I know people like Joel are doing their best to ensure the best values of the Labor Party are once more appreciated and respected .

But I do want to say that everyone here tonight that as far as this Prime Minister is concerned, as far as the Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, is concerned, as far as the very hard-working Parliamentary Secretary for Forestry, Senator Richard Colbeck, is concerned, you aren’t just any industry, you are a great industry and a great sector. We believe in you.

We believe in you and we relish and we revel in your appearance in such numbers in this building tonight.

I am so pleased that for the first time in many years, you can come into this building and not feel that you are in hostile territory. I want to assure you that this is friendly country. This is friendly country and I want to see many more buildings in the years to come built in this country that are as beautifully fitted-out with marvellous timber products as this building is here.

The forestry industry of this country has done great things for this building and may it do great things for so many more buildings in our country and around the world in the years and the decades to come.

Finally I want to say that we don’t claim, in this Government, to be experts on everything; we don’t claim to know everything about this industry.

Yes, we have an abundance of goodwill towards your industry. Yes, we want your industry to flourish, but we know that we will do better by your industry if we are as well informed as possible and that’s why I announce tonight that there will be a Forestry Industry Advisory Council, shortly to be finalised by the Government, but I can announce tonight that the co-chairman of that will be Rob de Fegely who is well known to your industry.

I’m sure you’ll keep us on the straight and narrow so to speak insofar as far as your industry is concerned and I’m sure that he will ensure that we make the kind of decisions that ensure that my colleagues and I are welcome at next year’s dinner.

[ends]

No friends of forests

Jane Goddard, Mt Martha
Heraldsun, letter, 10 Feb 2014

When he is actively seeking to have 74,000ha of Tasmania's world heritage-listed forests delisted from UNESCO, how can Greg Hunt have the tile "Minister for the Environment"?

To that I add his signing off on the Great Barrier Reef becoming a waste ground for mining sludge and a coal-ship super highway.

Logging a disaster

M. Friedlander, Frankston South
Heraldsun, letter, 10 Feb 2014

Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Prime Minister Tony Abbott have requested that UNESCO committee to remove the wold heritage protection of Tasmania's old-growth forest that were approved for world heritage listing in June last year, to enable logging.

This is unprecedented. No government has ever tried to delist a world heritage site when it is still intact.  It is extremely embarrassing internationally. There is no future in logging, but there is one in tourism.

Its a catastrophe for this magnificent natural wilderness.

Government targets Tassie's World Heritage flashpoint

Andrew Darby 
The Age, February 1, 2014

The Abbott Government is targetting Tasmania's most bitterly contested forest flashpoint in its attempt to roll back World Heritage protection, for logging.

A map of the target areas published by Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, shows the Upper Florentine Valley in the island's centre would lose its World Heritage status under the plan he put to UNESCO on Friday.

The bid, if successful, would axe 74,000 ha. of the 120,000 ha of forest that was added to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area in 2013, together with 50,000 ha of national park.

Among a string of disputed native forest valleys running along the eastern boundary of the existing World Heritage Area, the Upper Florentine fight stood as the toughest.

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A five year blockade camp occupied the temperate rainforest and tall old growth eucalypt until 2011, and the valley was the scene of elaborate tree-sits, and dozens of arrests.

In one of the most hair-raising events, a rampage by loggers wielding a sledgehammer and steel-capped boots on a blockade car occupied by protesters was secretly videoed, leading to three assault convictions.

Teacher Miranda Gibson spent an epic 457 days in a tree-sit near the Upper Florentine to raise awareness of several forested valleys in the area, and campaign for their World Heritage listing. She only came down in March 2013 because of a nearby bushfire.

Despite the protests, a small portion of the Upper Florentine was logged for sawlog, veneer and woodchip pulp, before the collapse of the Tasmanian timber industry in 2012

The Federal parliamentary secretary for Forestry, Richard Colbeck, said the wilderness values of such areas, where logging had occurred, had diminished to the point that they no longer deserved World Heritage listing.

But the 2013 extension was agreed by the World Heritage Committee on grounds other than wilderness, such as natural values of the trees themselves.

The Wilderness Society's Tasmanian campaigns manager, Vica Bayley, said on Saturday that the attack on the Upper Florentine demonstrated the government's wind-back was all about opening confirmed World Heritage forest for logging.

"The Upper Florentine is an incredibly intact and precious forest," Mr Bayley said.

"And so are the other areas detailed on the map. The entire exercise is highly contentious, highly provocative - particularly when the forest industry doesn't want a bar of it."

The Forest Industries Association of Tasmania confirmed that it stood firmly beside The Wilderness Society and other signatories to a 2013 forest peace deal in opposing any wind-back of World Heritage.

FIAT executive director Terry Edwards said: "We've made our position quite clear. We don't support any or all excisions to the World Heritage Area. The 2013 extension was an integral part of our agreement."

Mr Edwards said the industry was also concerned about the potential impacts the wind-back might have on Tasmanian forest products.

"Wood that is supplied under the Tasmanian Forest Agreement is now non-contentious," he said. "We don't want to be put in the same position as in the past."