Economy
As fumigation starts, ‘Labor and Forestry Tasmania must explain whole log exports’
The Tasmanian Greens today continued to press the Labor Government to explain why whole pine logs are being exported to China, and why the Tasmanian forest industry is unable to process these logs even after being given millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies to re-tool equipment to deal with lower quality logs.
Greens Member for Braddon, Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP, said Forestry Minister Bryan Green’s answer about this issue in Parliament today has raised more questions about the economics of Tasmania’s forest sector after the Minister revealed that Forestry Tasmania receives a higher price for logs exported whole than for logs that are woodchipped in Tasmania.
Mr O’Halloran also called on the Minister to provide a business case to back up Forestry Tasmania’s claims that it is making a profit from the export of these whole pine logs.
“Tasmania’s forest industry has been given tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in recent years to re-tool their operations to allow them to process lower-quality logs, so the Labor Government and Forestry Tasmania must explain why they are still exporting whole pine logs and why they are still using the same excuse about being unable to process this resource in Tasmania,” said Mr O’Halloran.
“On top of those historical taxpayer subsidies for re-tooling, the Minister has also acknowledged that transport subsidies are being paid to cart these logs to the wharf for export.”
“Minister Green’s revelation that Forestry Tasmania receives more for whole log exports than it does for logs sent to the woodchipper in Tasmania is extremely concerning and clearly demonstrates a distortion in Tasmania’s forest sector, as well as the complete lack of value that Tasmanian taxpayers are receiving for their timber resource.”
“While it seems obvious that taxpayers are losing money and opportunities on these whole log exports, Forestry Tasmania claim they are making a profit, so the Greens will continue to pursue a business case that backs up that claim – if one actually exists.”
“The Labor Government and Forestry Tasmania must explain why they are exporting whole pine logs (and associated processing jobs) to China, what happened to the taxpayer funds that were meant to re-tool the industry, and why the market has been skewed in such a way that whole logs for export are worth more to Forestry Tasmania than logs being processed in Tasmania by Tasmanians,” said Mr O’Halloran.