Time for leaders to address new Tasmanian reality: Our Common Ground

Time for leaders to address new Tasmanian reality: Our Common Ground

The coalition for Our Common Ground has urged all three parties to show leadership in developing forests & timber jobs solutions this election. The coalition says a debate is warranted given the sea change in core issues affecting Tasmania within the last month.

It pointed to the Government’s support for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards, a complete reversal of earlier positions. The Government appears to have finally identified significant shifts within timber markets and the industry locally, necessitating a need to find long-term solutions that protect native forests and timber jobs.

“Tasmania doesn’t need another politics-as-usual election,” said Judy Tierney of Our Common Ground. “The world is changing and triggering changes for Tasmania’s timber industry, too.

“Tasmanians deserve to know how each party will address and shape the changes coming our way. Over the next five weeks, there is no reason why the leaders can’t put forward their vision and commitment to develop a solution that protects our native forests and timber jobs,” she said.

Mrs Tierney said the Government’s and Gunns’ about-face are emblematic of a failure to identify that fundamental change was needed long ago.

“For years, Tasmanians have been forced into old fights as if the world wasn’t changing around us. And then, out of the blue, key attitudes of the Government and industry changed dramatically. The reason is simple. Markets for our products and the financing model for timber companies are changing, too.

“Tasmanians have a right to hear each leader’s thinking about where to go from here. And they should hear it before they vote, not after.”

Mrs Tierney noted other places—including Queensland and New Zealand – have changed their timber industries. She also noted that Tasmania’s refusal to strip away the rhetoric and focus on the choices ahead has left the state with fewer timber jobs, investors unwilling to invest and 20,000 football fields of Tasmania’s native forests lost each year.

Our Common Ground is a coalition of community and business leaders, environment groups and timber workers who are committed to finding a solution to the conflict over forestry in Tasmania.
Judy Tierney, Our Common Ground