The Greens have called on the Victorian State Government to ban native logging imports from Tasmanian forests urgently before saying that “it undermines the state’s ban and only encourages the Tasmanian Liberal and Labor parties to expand their industry.”
It came after the former Daniel Andrews-led Victorian State Government banned all native forestry in Victorian State Forests on January 1, 2024.
While the native forestry issue has divided the Australian Labor Party—the former McGowan Government in WA also banned native forestry from January 1—Tasmanian Opposition leader Rebecca White yesterday backed the industry in what was the strongest pledge by an ALP-aligned party to date.
“The end of native forest logging was a hard-fought victory for Victorians,” according to Deputy Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell, who said, “Victorian taxpayers would be shocked if their money was now being used to destroy irreplaceable ancient Tasmanian forests.”
According to Ms Sandell, “many of the logs being shipped into Victoria (from Tasmania) come from ancient trees near the takayna/Tarkine and southern forests of Tasmania.”
The Tasmanian Labor Party have, according to the Victorian Greens, “abandoned any commitment to protecting nature by promising this week to extend native forest logging contracts to 2040.”
It comes as Britton Timbers Managing Director Glenn Britton welcomed Tasmanian Labor’s forestry policy, which was released yesterday and he said was a “pro-forestry and pro-worker platform.”
Shadow Minister for Resources Stuart Broad met with workers at the Somerset-based business and said the Labor Policy will “address growing concerns about resource security and transparency.”
Just weeks out from the Tasmanian Election, Opposition Leader Rebecca White followed Premier Jeremey Rockliff’s lead and has committed to extend all wood supply agreements from 2027 to 2040.
“Labor has listened to the timber industry and worked very closely with them over the past few years, and this policy reflects our dedication to work together to secure a sustainable future for the industry,” Tasmanian Labor Leader Rebecca White said on Tuesday.
The Tasmanian Forest Wars have escalated into a political football in recent weeks after Premier Rockliff, who leads narrowly in the polls, vowed to extend logging concessions and add 40,000 hectares of forests to commercial harvesting.
Premier Rockliff is doubling down on the native forestry in the lead-up to the March 23 poll, confirming that the Liberals are the “strongest supporters of Tasmania’s high-value native forestry industry” and were “backing in Tasmanian sawmillers, contractors, and local jobs”.
In response, Shadow Minister Broad added that “Labor will ensure that contracts are extended out to 2040 and include plantation sawlogs, special species are managed independently, and that a 25 per cent local benefits test applies to logging and haulage contracts,” in what is a broad shot at the Tasmanian Government over its handling of Victorian contractors operating in the island state.
Premier Rockliff holds a narrow lead over Ms White in the latest opinion poll, with the risk that either major party may be pushed into forming a minority government with one of the minor parties.
