Tony Burke’s press release (http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/burke/2011/mr20120113.html) contains the spurious statement:
“In accordance with the requirements of the Intergovernmental Agreement, which commits to honouring all existing wood supply contracts, these coupes have been excluded from the Conservation Agreement.“
It must be said that the IGA never committed to honouring all existing wood supply contracts by allowing logging to continue in the interim in the 430k ha.
Yet the two governments are hell-bent on allowing it.
I have to make the observation that this shredding of the environmental essence of the IGA is taking place while our Premier is missing in action.
However, our Deputy Premier is quite cheerfully filling in. He also has stepped in in his role the Minister for Energy, Resources and anything else that they want to log, mine or sell off. Bloody great place, Australia, eh? Here you have questions relating to biodiversity protection agreements not being signed by our State Environment Minister and being signed off in Canberra by a bloke called Burke who would would not call himself an environmentalist, although he is the Minister.
Enough of the diatribe.
THE DETAIL:
The IGA (Clauses 26 and 27) required that contracts in the first instance be honoured by rescheduling logging to outside the 572k ha, and if that were not possible, to outside the 430k ha, and if that were not possible … compensation is to be paid. It certainly didn’t allow interim logging within the 430k ha. In no way shape of form.
The links to the three reports are on this fed govt webpage: http://www.environment.gov.au/land/forests/independent-schedulers.html
These reports fail to mention the requirement in Clauses 26 and 27 for financial compensation where rescheduling-relocation of logging is not practical.
The Independent Schedulers/Reporters were not asked to assess what compensation should be paid under the TFIA (aka as the IGA) and the terms of reference for the independent schedulers reports did not include reference to the compensation matters in Clause 26-27.
They have now reported that the contracted work cannot be met without continuing logging within the 430k ha, therefore it is now incumbent on the two governments to work out the compensation required to honour these contracts. Instead the governments have released the final report in the same breath as announcing this Interim Conservation Agreement. They correctly point out that the TFIA was not legally binding, but declare that this one is – and indeed it may well be, because provision for such an agreement exists through Section 305 of the EPBC.
The third term of Reference according to the Independent Schedulers was contained in the “Tasmanian Forest Agreement Verification: Advice to Prime Minister and Premier of Tasmania Interim Reserve Boundaries”:
“3 Advise the Prime Minister and Premier by close of business Friday 5 August whether the proposed 430,000 hectare reserve is prime facie inconsistent with commitments contained in the Heads of Agreement.”
This allowed the Independent Schedulers to consider the issue of compensation, given that one of the commitments contained in the Heads of Agreement (Clauses 26-27) was the commitment to financially compensate where logging within the 430k ha could not be rescheduled. The Independent Schedulers failed to grasp the nettle. And the two governments have concocted an Interim Conservation Agreement which hides this fact.
It makes you proud to be Australian, doesn’t it? A pox on their Houses!
• LABOR MUST EXPLAIN ORWELLIAN CONSERVATION AGREEMENT
PM, Why Was IGA Commitment NOT Delivered in Full?
Tim Morris MP
Acting Greens Leader
The Tasmanian Greens today called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to take the opportunity while visiting Tasmania this weekend to explain to the public why she has allowed the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), which she signed, to be breached in regards to the commitment to place the identified 430, 000 hectares into Informal Reserves.
Acting Leader Tim Morris MP said that Labor leadership has failed to deliver the IGA’s conservation and industry goals even-handedly, and has bowed to pressure from industry vested-interests to move the IGA’s goal-posts.
“This Orwellian Conservation Agreement is the conservation agreement you have when not having an actual conservation agreement. The Tasmanian people and the Tasmanian forests deserve better,” Mr Morris said.
“Prime Minister Gillard must answer whether she has capitulated to pro forestry vested interests to move the IGA goal-posts and basically rewrite and water-down this key conservation commitment.”
“Let’s be clear about this. Despite the predictable and lazy attempts by the pro-industry lobby to try and resurrect the tired old stereotype that conservationists are trying to move the goal-posts, it is Labor who has allowed the promised goal-posts to be ripped from the ground.”
“Labor leadership has failed with this Orwellian Conservation Agreement which lists 43 coupes for logging within the identified area without triggering the compensation clause of the IGA.”
“The IGA ledger is not balanced. Industry received the IGA’s promised forest contractors exit package in full, conservationists have not received the IGA’s promised Conservation Agreement in full.”
“This is a breach of the IGA, and a breach of trust.”
“The forest contractors were not told to be grateful to receive 99.5% of the IGA’s promised $45 million exit package, they received it in full.”
“The conservation movement did not ask for any more than that which the IGA promised to deliver, and rightly expected that Clause 25 of the IGA, to protect the identified 430, 000 hectares, would be honoured.”
“We have seen forestry representatives publicly state that they would not accept the compensation provision stipulated in Clause 27 of the IGA, and clearly Labor has buckled, moved the goal-posts and breached their own IGA commitments.”
“The challenge for both the Prime Minister and the Premier is to front up and answer why they have capitulated to forestry pressure to the point of breaching their own signed undertakings to the public, and what they intend to do now to stop industry vested interests moving the goal-posts even further.”
“The Prime Minister must not dodge media scrutiny on this issue while she is in Tasmania. She must explain to the Tasmanian people why she decided to abandon her signed commitment to protecting 430,000 hectares.”
“The IGA, while imperfect, provides a once in a generation opportunity to heal divisions within the Tasmanian community, but only if the political leaders show real leadership by sticking to their commitment to deliver both conservation and industry goals equally and concurrently,” Mr Morris said.
Mr Morris reminded that the Tasmanian Greens are not signatories to either the Statement of Principles 2010 or the 2011 Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement, which was signed by Prime Minister Gillard and Premier Lara Giddings.
• PRIME MINISTER FAILS HER OWN CREDIBILITY TEST ON FORESTRY
Lack of Pokies Movement Puts Pressure on Labor & Liberal for State $1 Bet Limit
Tim Morris MP
Acting Greens Leader
“I do expect people who have been in that process every step of the way to hold to the process that they agreed to.” – Prime Minister Julia Gillard at a press conference today in Hobart.
The Tasmanian Greens have expressed disbelief at the Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s hypocritical call for groups involved in forestry peace negotiations to “hold to the agreed process,” given her recent failure to honour her own word regarding the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA).
Greens Acting Leader Tim Morris MP said that it was just days ago that the Prime Minister breached her own, signed agreement by sanctioning the continued logging of forests within the 430,000 hectares of high conservation forest identified in the IGA for protection in Informal Reserves.
“The Prime Minister last week broke her own promise to protect the identified 430,000 hectares of high conservation value forests and to trigger the IGA compensation clause should any coupes be identified as not being able to be rescheduled.”
“It’s hard to believe that she could have the audacity to lecture those involved in the process about sticking to their word.”
“While the Greens welcome the Prime Minister’s support for the integrity of the IGA process, we also note that she has done nothing to prevent the conservation goals of the agreement from being eroded by vested industry interests, under the Orwellian Conservation Agreement.”
“That is an obvious failure of Labor leadership at the Federal and State levels, and a breach of the public’s trust.”
“Forest contractors were not told to be grateful to receive a reduced amount of compensation under the deal, and any attempt to water down that amount would have been met with justified outrage.”
“All the Prime Minister is being asked to do is to stick to her word,” Mr Morris said.
Mr Morris also said that with Tasmanians losing over $200 million on pokies each year, the State cannot afford to just wait for federal action to be agreed upon.
“Greens Gaming spokesperson Kim Booth MP is Chair of the Parliamentary Committee inquiry into introducing a state $1 bet limit, and there is growing pressure on both State Labor and Liberal to support its introduction.”
“The Greens will continue to take a leadership role in the long-overdue pokies reform,” Mr Morris said.
• PM’s forest meetings need to deliver on the agreement
The Wilderness Society and Florentine Protection Society today called on the Prime Minister to use her meetings with Tasmanian colleagues to take control of the Tasmanian forests Agreement and urgently implement the agreed outcome that logging would stop in identified forest areas.
Last week’s signing of a Conservation Agreement that allowed logging to continue in highly contentious areas that were promised protection represented a failure of implementation of the Agreement and a hollow outcome for conservation.
“Government implementation of the Forests Agreement has failed to deliver a meaningful conservation outcome as promised,” said Vica Bayley, spokesperson for the Wilderness Society.
“This is a hollow agreement that allows logging in iconic and highly contentious areas such as the Weld and Picton Valleys, the foothills below Ben Lomond National Park and the Upper Derwent.”
“With new roads up to 2km long being built into pristine areas and ongoing logging, a meaningful conservation outcome has been sidelined.”
It is understood the Prime Minister will be meeting with Tasmanian colleagues today to discuss the Agreement and the Societies are urging her to take control of the situation and honour her agreement.
As non-signatory to the Statement of Principles, the Florentine Protection Society reiterated the need for the protection of forests that were threatened with logging. Spokesperson Angie McGowan said that “the Conservation Agreement fails because allows business-as-usual logging in areas proposed for reservation.”
“The failure of the so-called ‘Conservation Agreement’ to protect high conservation value forests will not satisfy the Tasmanian public or the forest industry’s customers.”
“The Prime Minister must rectify this failure and ensure her Agreement is delivered in full so that all parties can be confident that progress towards a holistic resolution to this long running debate is real,” concluded Ms McGowan.
• Bob Brown: Prime Minister lines up with loggers
The Prime Minister is aping Forestry Tasmania’s lines on the breach of her August commitment to immediately protect Tasmania’s high conservation value forests, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
“On Friday, Forestry Tasmania, the extremist loggers’ outfit which has trashed the Gillard commitment, stated that ‘these coupes represent less than half of 1% of the total area identified for interim protection’. Today, the Prime Minister is using the same statistic to justify her own renege on the promise,” Senator Brown said in Hobart.
“In six months time, this agreement expires and then even more destruction inside these so-called protected areas will occur.
“The Intergovernmental Agreement promised to protect the 430,000 hectares ‘immediately’, leaving over 900,000 for future logging,” Senator Brown said.
Miranda Gibson in the Observer Tree. Pic: Alan Lesheim
Earlier on Tasmanian Times: IGA: Tear it up says Colbeck, as ‘FT runs amok’
• PB, Comment 45 on The Only Game in Town I should also have excluded non-forest (such as scrub, moorland, farmland, rock and lakes) from my figures and have therefore revised them downwards as follows to produce a rotation period of only 37 years which is a damning indictment of FT’s approach to sustainable management:
