HELEN KEMPTON Mercury
MHA Bryan Green was called a liar and a Forestry stooge as passion turned to anger at a public meeting at Wynyard.
The meeting was convened by the Tarkine National Coalition as an outlet for concern about the Government’s push to build a Forestry-Tasmania-proposed road into the Tarkine rainforest.
A network of 400km sealed and unsealed roads already provide tourist access to the Tarkine and the new link will cost $23 million.
“Labelling this road a tourist initiative rather than a logging route is an insult to our intelligence,” West Coast Mayor Darryl Gerrity said after Mr Green chastised him publicly for taking a stand against the proposal.
Several people confronted Mr Green as he went to leave the meeting, including Charles Gilmour, of Rocky Cape, who laughed as the former deputy premier said the road was designed to get tourists into the Tarkine rather than timber out.
“So are you saying there will never be a log truck on that new 6km sealed section of road. This is just a sham, it is a logging road out and out and that’s it,” Mr Gilmour said.
Mr Green acknowledged that log trucks would use sections of the road but said making the Tarkine a national park, as proposed by the Tasmanian Greens, would gut the North-West’s economy.
“Making it a national park would take 43,000ha of working forest out of operation,” he said.
“Good,” the crowd responded.
Mr Green said the views expressed by the 200 or so people at the meeting did not represent the view of most Tasmanians.
