Federal taxpayers will immediately begin funding at least $15 million to buy out Tasmanian sawmillers in a final attempt to secure a lasting forest peace deal in the state. The move was backed in an “interim agreement” between forest industry and green groups. Source: The Australian
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke, who has not ruled out expanding the buyout scheme to as much as $50m, said last night he wanted the money to begin flowing to sawmillers.
The future of the agreement rests on hopes of persuading significant numbers of sawmillers to surrender their log quotas in return for compensation.
This would reduce the timber needs of industry to allow more forests to be protected, boosting the prospects of a lasting deal by taking it closer to the 568,722 hectares sought by green groups.
An agreement between the Gillard and Giddings governments in August last year included $15m to buy out sawmillers but has until now not been activated. It could be expanded.
Groups such as The Wilderness Society and the Australian Forest Products Association said they needed another six weeks to work out and agree on the scale of new forest reserves and remaining wood supply.
However, they insisted the interim deal brought a final agreement much closer, and they were optimistic of achieving it and ending 35 years of conflict.
“We are trying to shift mountains here,” said key industry negotiator Terry Edwards, chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania.
The interim deal shows significant movement from green groups on key industry demands. It backs industry calls for the reopening of the mothballed Triabunna woodchip export mill in the state’s east, purchased from Gunns last year by conservation-minded entrepreneurs Jan Cameron and Graeme Wood.
