Australasia's home for timber news and information

Timber in Tasmania – the biggest loser

The biggest loser to another delay to the Tasmanian forest peace deal process is the timber industry, signatories to the peace deal have warned. Source: The Examiner

But industry-group signatories said the government and MLCs clearly needed time to sort out the legislation.

Forest Industries Association of Tasmania chief executive Terry Edwards said he was hopeful struggling timber company Ta Ann could wait out the delay, with continued assistance from the government and positive market lobbying by the environmental signatories.

“This is certainly going to be challenging (for Ta Ann),” Mr Edwards said. “They will do everything they can to remain in Tasmania.

“And hopefully, because the delay is not necessarily an extensive one, they can hang on.”

Wilderness Society Tasmania campaign manager Vica Bayley said the delay was not as problematic as what would happen when the Legislative Council resumed on April 16.

Bayley and Edwards said a proposed change to the timing and delivery of 500,000 hectares of reserves promised under the agreement would rupture the peace deal.

The amendment, proposed by Rumney independent MLC Tony Mulder, was due to be debated on Wednesday night.

Instead it was headed off by an amendment by Mersey independent MLC Mike Gaffney, sparking a shambolic debate about the proper legislative process and ending in leader of government business Craig Farrell putting off the legislation until the next sitting.

Bayley said that until it was dealt with the fate of the deal was unknown.

“There are still a range of amendments on the table that significantly change the architecture of the agreement,” Bayley said.

“Where we see Tony Mulder saying that this is going to strengthen the legislation, it is at the cost of the conservation outcomes.

“We have been very clear that anything that messes with the number of reserves or how they are delivered is going to be a concern for durability.”

Edwards said that amendments to the legislation passed so far had strengthened the peace deal outcomes.

He said that while the delay was regrettable, it was the pragmatic thing to do and if debate had pressed on this week, the legislation would probably have been voted down.

Edwards said he could not predict where the legislation would end up.