EXCLUDE GUNNS NOT TASMANIA!
David Llewellyn tabled a legislation amendment in Parliament late on Tuesday night (see below) that allows FT to declare public roads closed for Forestry activity. Vehicle traffic has been amended to mean pedestrian traffic. This sneaky and sinister amendment means that FT will be able to exclude the public and close roads without having to officially gazette an exclusion zone! It was rushed through parliament late at night and has received very little press, just what the State Government want.
Obviously the Government is trying to save face in the wake of the recent bungled exclusion zone embarrassment, and these measures have been taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
This is yet another example of FT’s old growth land grab and takeover of our forests just to look after their corporate mates Gunns.
We are going to send a strong message to Minister David Llewellyn tomorrow, Friday 9th October, outside his office in the treasury building at 12:30pm. Meet from 12pm in Franklin Sq.
DEMAND FT STOP USING PUBLIC MONEY TO DECIMATE PUBLIC FOREST AND FACILITATE THE PROFITS OF GUNNS
DEMAND MINISTER LLEWELYN ACT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST AND PROTECT OLD GROWTH FORESTS RATHER THAN CREATE LEGISLATION TO PROTECT CORPORATE WOODCHIPPING INTERESTS.
David Llewellyn, MP
Minister for Energy and Resources
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Safe Use Of Forestry Roads
David Llewellyn, Minister for Resources, today tabled the Forestry Amendment Bill 2009.
“The principal purpose of the Bill is to keep state forests open to the public, while also ensuring that the network of forestry roads can continue to be used for forest operations, ” Mr Llewellyn said.
Forestry Tasmania currently manages an extensive network of around 7000 kilometres of forestry roads, constructed for the principal purpose of providing access to working forests to harvest and regenerate forestry coupes.
“The construction of this road network is funded by Forestry Tasmania through income received from the sale of wood products,” Mr Llewellyn said.
“As a general rule, Forestry Tasmania allows the public to use these forestry roads for recreational purposes.”
Mr Llewellyn said that it had been assumed forestry roads were private roads. However, because Forestry Tasmania allows the public to freely use these roads, they are in fact regarded as Public Streets, as defined in Section 3 of the Traffic Act 1925. Accordingly, the same regulatory regime for public roads also applies to the vast majority of forestry roads.
“Given that forestry roads were incorrectly assumed to be private roads, High Productivity Vehicles (HPVs) have been operating on the state forest road network without it having been assessed for this purpose, and without the necessary exemptions having been granted.
“To overcome the technicality, the easy solution would have been to close the network to the public. However, that is not consistent with the principle of promoting public use of state forests.
“As Forestry Tasmania is the owner of the network of forestry roads, it is best placed to assess which of those roads may be safely used by HPVs and Higher Mass Limit Vehicles; and when public access to particular roads should be restricted to ensure that public safety is maintained during forestry operations.
“The proposed amendment ensures continued public access to state forest, except where there is an unacceptable risk.
“It is also important to note that all other road and traffic laws will continue to apply to forestry roads.”
http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/bills%5CBills2009%5Cpdf%5C60_of_2009.pdf
FORESTRY AMENDMENT BILL 2009
(Brought in by the Minister for Energy and Resources, the
Honourable David Edward Llewellyn)
A BILL FOR
An Act to amend the Forestry Act 1920
Be it enacted by His Excellency the Governor of Tasmania, by
and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and
House of Assembly, in Parliament assembled, as follows:
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Forestry
Amendment Act 2009.
2. Commencement
This Act commences on the day on which this
Act receives the Royal Assent.
3. Principal Act
In this Act, the Forestry Act 1920* is referred to
as the Principal Act.
*No. 60 of 1920
Forestry Amendment Act 2009
Act No. of
s. 4
4
Still Wild Still Threatened is a grassroots community organisation campaigning for the immediate protection of Tasmania’s ancient forests and the creation of an equitable and environmentally sustainable forestry industry in Tasmania.
In TT Press Releases: Conservationists condemn new Forestry amendment bill
www.stillwildstillthreatened.org
[email protected]
www.myspace.com/stillwildstillthreatened
PO Box 295. South Hobart TAS 7004
Still Wild Still Threatened
David Llewellyn
