The Hodgman Liberal government will be under pressure over their Forestry Bill, and how they intend to manage the state’s finances in light of the Federal slash and burn budget when the State Parliament resumes tomorrow, Greens Leader Kim Booth MP said today.
“The Resources Minister, Paul Harriss, is trying to perpetrate some weird spin on the Tasmanian people with his so-called Rebuilding the Forest Industry Bill,” Greens Leader Kim Booth said.
“All his proposed legislation will do is entrench community divisions by the ideologically-driven removal of areas previously agreed by the Parliament are to be protected as Future Reserve Land, throw the markets into uncertainty, and pose serious implications for Forestry Tasmania’s FSC process.”
“Minister Harriss has made much noise about ending forest industry subsidies, but in fact he has been silent on the range of public subsidies forestry receives, and he needs to come clean whether the Liberals will stop transportation and roading subsidies.
“The Minister must also rule out asset sales or equity transfers from another GBE or state-owned company to prop up a failed forestry business model.”
“The Greens will be pursuing in Parliament the smoke and mirrors sham that the Liberals are presenting as their so-called forestry policy, which is a nonsensical mess that the taxpayer will end up paying for through the nose.”
“We will also be demanding answers about the elusive Treasury analysis of the impacts of the Abbott slash-and-burn budget upon the state’s finances, especially our health and education sectors.”
“Both the Premier and the Treasurer have hidden behind their claim that Treasury is undertaking this analysis but people are getting tired of waiting for any details to be provided.”
“Tasmanians deserve to see exactly what that latest Treasury analysis details, and we need to hear how the Hodgman government intends to address those impacts, and exactly how have they lobbied their Federal counterparts on behalf of Tasmania.”
“Premier Hodgman and Treasurer Gutwein need to front up this Treasury analysis, or they need to be upfront with the Tasmanian community and confess that they do not have a plan to counter the cruelty of the Abbott budget,” Mr Booth said.
Kim Booth MP | Greens Leader
