The ‘land swap’ (No satisfactory explanation) between Forestry Tasmania (FT) and the Crown was initiated in 1997.
That was eight years ago!
The purported implementation took place between 1998 and 2000. In 2005 the whole exercise is still shrouded in a murky fog of all too familiar Tasmanian obfuscation, spin and stonewall silence.
Clearly the government and FT have something to hide.
We know the location of some of the Crown land titles that got converted to private FT titles. Some of them were presented as evidence by witnesses at a Senate inquiry. Yet any search of Titles Office records does not bring them up!
Clearly someone (no doubt in FT) worked out which land was being converted.
The government and FT have not been able to produce a single example of FT land reverting to the Crown. A search at the Titles Office will reveal nothing. If this part of the deal took place, there must be a map identifying the land. Where is it? Who has it? Why has it been concealed for all these years?
If such a map exists, it must have been capable of immediate production at any time over the last five to seven years to demonstrate the veracity of this ‘lawful land swap’. Until a detailed map is produced showing all land on both sides of the ‘swap’, I can only presume it to be a (betrayal of) the people of Tasmania.
My understanding is that there were two schedules of land converted to titles in the name of FT. The first was for the 77,000 hectares mentioned in The Mercury article (Land swap deemed lawful). A second was for a further 20,000 hectares, making a total of 97,000 hectares.
Even if the swap did take place, I consider it vital for the people of Tasmania to be able to see and compare what was exchanged. If the swap is lawful, what is there to hide?
Value of the trees
The average value of the people’s land that went to FT (assuming it is in fact 97,000 hetares, is only $330 per hectare). This ‘value’ does not include the value of the trees — which would be worth many multiples of the land value! Some of the land has already been converted from natural forest to plantations. It should be noted that the lowest value for land with established plantations, according to my sources, is $3,000 per hectare. Titles already converted to plantation are therefore being valued at no more than 10% of their market value!
I’ll wager that FT land — if any has reverted to the Crown — does not come with pristine forest — or plantations!
Further, there has never been a rational commercial justification for the ‘swap’.
It has been my suspicion for some time now that the real motive was entirely for the financial advantage of private interests.
Some of the people’s finest forest land, complete with trees, has been moved to FT in anticipation of a major deal with an offshore corporation to buy Tasmania’s monopoly forest company. The prime forests that were transferred to FT will go into the deal as a sweetener — at the bare land valuation price. The trees, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, are the sweetener.
I will happily (re-draw this scenario) — if the government and FT lay out the facts — including precise maps, so that we can all see that this ‘land swap’ is in truth – ‘lawful’.
Paul de Burgh-Day is a farmer at Lorinna
