The State Government is not ready to release the second stage of an independent review of Forestry Tasmania and now the Parliament will not sit again until August. The opposition said major changes are in the pipeline for Forestry Tasmania. Source: ABC News, Timberbiz
Before the Tasmanian Parliament stopped for its winter break, Premier Lara Giddings confirmed she had the long-awaited second stage of the review, which is to guide how a $110 million budget allocation for the state-owned company will be spent.
The Opposition believes the money will be used to shut it down.
Shadow Treasurer Peter Gutwein accused the Government of withholding the report for its own reasons, including forcing the Upper House to vote on the budget “without all of the information.”
The Premier said the review will go through the proper Cabinet process.
Labor and the Greens blocked the Opposition’s move to force the Government to release the report.
The Tasmanian Opposition wants the Government to reveal how many jobs will go under its plan for Forestry Tasmania.
Gutwein said the Government plans to split the company into a smaller forestry business and a parks management arm and that he has been told the Government will use $35 million budgeted for Forestry Tasmania to fund up to 150 redundancies.
“I’ve head this from within Government itself,” he said. “Quite clearly on the table now is a plan to slash jobs in Forestry Tasmania and I’m being told that the number could be as high as 150 or around 50 per cent of Forestry Tasmania’s workforce.”
Forestry Tasmania has declined to comment.
The State Government denies there are secret plans to restructure Forestry Tasmania.
Government Minister Brian Wightman said Forestry Tasmania’s future will not be decided until Cabinet has seen a full review of the business.
“We’re still waiting for the second URS report and that then will be considered by cabinet,” he said. “But I make it very clear once again that the $35 million has been put aside as a contingency fund.
“Obviously Forestry Tasmania is not immune from the pressures that all of the industry are facing and that’s why that money has been placed there.
