TPEHN remains concerned that the Forest Principle related to Plantations remains a vague motherhood statement which has yet to be clarified.
Plantations: Support sustainable and socially acceptable plantations including agreed reforms and new agro-forestry outcomes, including pursuing certification.
In October 2010 ten organisations signed the Tasmanian Forests Statement of Principles.
TPEHN has been lobbying all parties to the Forestry Statement of Principles to advocate for stronger and more detailed measures related to reforms in the management of forestry plantations. To our profound disappointment Environment Tasmania Inc. has failed to take this public health matter seriously during their negotiations on the Tasmanian Forests Statement of Principles.
Considerable community concern remains regarding the transition out of native forestry and increasing reliance on plantation monocultures that use pesticides and herbicides (biocidal chemicals) mostly applied by aerial spraying methods and which ultimately contaminate drinking water and soils.
Even at this late stage in the negotiations for a peace deal there is a devilish lack of detail in this principle.
In March 2010 TPEHN launched a brochure about the public health impact of widespread use of biocidal chemicals In Tasmanian agriculture and plantation forestry – Warning! – Poisoned Water? (HERE) The brochure highlights the chemical contamination occurring to the majority of water catchments which supply drinking water to Tasmania’s cities and townships.
Currently public submissions on the use of agricultural chemicals in Tasmania are being sought.
“These draft regulations still allow the spraying of triazines such as simazine, which have long been known to cause harmful effects and glyphosate herbicides which have been long linked to birth defects in humans and animals and other human health risks” said Dr Alison Bleaney of the Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network.
The question remains as to whether the forest peace deal will address the public and environmental health impacts of transforming Tasmania’s forestry sector from native forest harvesting to a reliance on ‘sustainable and socially acceptable plantations’.
Certification of ‘sustainable and socially acceptable plantations’ must address the use of biocidal chemicals that are banned for safety reasons in other parts of the world.
TPEHN will work for the abolition of many herbicides and insecticides used on plantations that have long half-lives, are not safe and are recognised as carcinogenic, genotoxic, immunotoxic or endocrine disrupting chemicals.
• SENATOR THE HON RICHARD COLBECK
Senator for Tasmania
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation, Industry and Science
Not a peace deal – Just another Greens-induced Labor Lie
Claims that the grubby Labor/Green sell out of Tasmania’s forest industry is a ‘peace deal’ are nothing more than a fraud on the Australian community, Coalition Forestry spokesman Senator Richard Colbeck said.
“We already know – at their own admission – that environmental activists will continue disruptive protest in the forests.
“These groups have already changed their rhetoric from ‘high-conservation value’ to ‘native forest’, again broadening the scope of their unjustified attacks, so what has been gained in these so-called peace talks?
“All that has been achieved is that Tasmania’s timber industry has again be dudded by Labor.
“Labor is shamefully using Tasmania’s forests to appease the Greens and cling to power, similar to the way they grovel for Greens preferences at election time.
“There can be no forest ‘deal’ when all the parties are not at the table.
“We know from recent statements there is no consensus or agreement. The industry has said so, the Wilderness Society has said so, and Tasmania’s private forest owners are not even at the table.
“The Coalition said when Bill Kelty was appointed that we feared a political outcome not a real one, and it is clear now that is what’s forming.
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“It is time for the Labor Party to start standing up for the people they claim to represent – the proud Tasmanian timber workers and their industry – not working with the Greens to destroy businesses and livelihoods.
“It is time for Labor to stand up for jobs in this State. To even contemplate paying people not to work is nothing short of outrageous.
“It is time for the four Tasmanian Labor members in timber seats to stop being cowards and come out in support of their constituents,” Senator Colbeck said.
