It is disappointing that the World Heritage Committee has ignored the will of the Tasmanian people in making this decision, after Tasmanians voted for it at the 2013 Federal election.
However, we will accept the umpire’s decision, as we said we would.
The Liberal Government is concerned about what this decision will mean for the forest industry, particularly in relation to accessing specialty timbers.
This makes our plan to unlock the remaining 400,000 hectares of forest locked up under Labor and the Greens even more important.
We have said we will abide by the umpire’s decision – the challenge now is for Labor, the Greens and the environmental movement to do the same.
Enough is enough. These groups should accept the outcome from the UN overnight, move on, and allow us to deliver our plan to rebuild the timber industry.
Paul Harriss, Minister for Resources
