The President of Tasmania’s Legislative Council has delivered a scathing assessment of the forest peace deal. Source: 7 News
It is rare for the Council’s President to speak on a piece of legislation, but Sue Smith’s address, lasting almost two hours, allowed the Member for Montgomery to vent strong feelings on the process to end Tasmania’s long standing forest wars.
Smith said the plan to protect 500,000 hectares from logging and cut wood supply will effectively end all native forest logging on public land, and its enacting legislation is deficient.
“This is about getting out of native timber totally,” she said.
Smith said the peace deal divided Tasmanians who are sick of taxpayer-funded bailouts for the forest industry.
“I have now got country rural agricultural people saying we’re sick of the trees, we’re sick of the handouts, why don’t they just have to survive on their own?”
Smith said.
“How much more money are the Australian and Tasmanian people going to put in to prop up these people?
“We have turned them into a community that now is a welfare community.”
Smith said the granting of payments to forestry workers to leave the native timber industry has disadvantaged others.
“The problem is that people who received money got to keep the equipment, then they’ve got to work somewhere and they can go out and they can afford to undercut someone else because they own their equipment.
“In the early days there was great sympathy for people in the forest industry.
“There is no sympathy left because they are sick and tired of the constant hand out of money.”
Smith said the peace deal throws into question Tasmania’s ability to remain a state in its own right.
“This is about more than trees,” she said.
“This has got to the stage in this state (where we have) to ask ourselves the question of whether or not statehood is where we should be into the future.
“We cannot continue to be half a million people who intend to take out of the public purse of Australia and not be prepared to put back in when we’ve got a sustainable product that we can turn over and over.”
The President also cast doubt over the sustainability of the peace agreement between environmentalists and the forest industry.
“Don’t think that this is going to give a solution that is going to be in concrete that people can forget about and walk away.
“Those that will get some money will be comforted, those that don’t won’t have any security in my opinion.”
Whether the speech will affect the future of the peace deal is yet to be seen.
The State Government has adjourned debate on the legislation after proposing significant changes to the bill.
Sue Smith won’t re-contest her North-West seat in May’s Legislative Council elections.
