‘Labor backflip on forestry contractors welcomed’

JEREMY ROCKLIFF, Shadow Minister for Resources, MR Tuesday August 18, 2009
Labor backflip on forestry contractors welcomed

The Tasmanian Liberals have been calling on the State Labor Government for some time to commit to a review of the Forestry Fair Contract Code
Today’s backflip on the plight of forestry contractors is welcomed

Many Tasmanian forest contractors are in desperate times

New system must be fair and have teeth

For close to two years, I have continually pressed the Minister for Resources, David Llewellyn, to show some genuine leadership and recognise the plight of forest contractors and improve the legislation regulating their industry.

Despite comments from the Minister back in 2008 during Budget Estimates that a “solution to the industry’s problems cannot be addressed through additional Government regulations or contract arrangements”, the Minister today announced that the Government would examine ways to improve the operation of the Tasmanian Forestry (Fair Contracts Code) Act 2001.

The Tasmanian Liberals welcome this backflip.

As it currently stands, the Code effectively allows one sector of the industry to dominate the other and there is no effective mechanism for dispute resolution.

Many Tasmanian forest contractors are in an increasingly desperate financial situation, which could have significant consequences including occupational health and safety risks associated with the increasingly limited ability of contractors to afford the required maintenance schedules on equipment including trucks.

This is a serious public issue that has continually been ignored by government.

Victoria is leading the way in this area and we hope that the Tasmanian Government will carefully consider and learn from the Owner Drivers and Forestry Contractors Act 2006.

The State Labor Government needs to finally consider the long term interests of forest contractors and act on this situation as a matter of urgency and develop a system that is fair and has teeth.

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