The Minister for Resources Paul Harriss announced last Sunday that he had amended the Permanent Native Forest Estate Policy to postpone the date by which broad-scale clearing and conversion of native forest on private land is to cease, from 1 January 2015 for an unspecified period while the PNFE policy is reviewed.

But the Tasmanian Conservation Trust has disputed the truth of the minister’s claim to have changed the deadline for clearing because the deadline is a commitment contained in the Tasmanian Regional Forests Agreement and would require both governments to agree to the change.

“The Minister for Resources needs to come clean with the Tasmanian public about whether the Tasmanian Regional Forests Agreement has been changed in secret,” said the TCT Director Peter McGlone.

“The date for ceasing broad-scale clearing of native forest on private land is a commitment contained in the Tasmanian Regional Forests Agreement and either this agreement has been changed in secret by the Tasmanian and Australian Governments without the Tasmanian public being informed or Minister Harriss has made a serious error and does not have the authority to change the deadline”.

Under Clause 45 of the Supplementary Regional Forest Agreement (signed on 13 May 2015) broad-scale clearing and conversion of native forest on private land was to cease ten years from the signing of the agreement i.e. cease on 13 May 2015. This date was later changed to 1 January 2015.

“The only way that this date could be amended is for both the Tasmanian and Australian Government’s to have amended the Tasmanian RFA but Minister Harriss has made no public statements that this has occurred and we can find no reference to any recent change on the web sites of either government,” Mr McGlone continued.

“Has the Tasmanian RFA changed or is Minister Harriss proposing to allow private land owners to operate contrary to the agreement?”

“If the Tasmanian RFA has been changed it has happened in secret with no public consultation and no record of the change has yet been made public. If this is how the government intends to proceed with the full review of the RFA then it can hardly inspire confidence in the public who will continue to be asked to pay the costs of such deals.”

The commitment by both governments to cease clearing on private land, contained in the 2005 Supplementary Regional Forest Agreement, was accompanied by an investment by the Australian government into private forest conservation of $45.9 million including:
– $31.3 million into the Private Forest Conservation Fund;
– $4.5 million into the Midlands Hotspots Program; and
– $2.96 million into the Mole Creek Karst Forest Program.

Note: all figures are actual statements of expenditure and are taken from the Australian Government Department of the Environment web site at: http://www.environment.gov.au/land/forests

“These investments were provided on the basis that the broader commitments to ceasing land clearing on private and public land would be delivered but now the state government is reneging on this deal,” Mr McGlone added.

“If the state government wants to break the terms of the RFA to now continue clearing of native forests it should return the $45.9 million provided by the Australian government which came out of the pockets of Australian tax-payers,” Mr McGlone concluded.
Peter McGlone Director Tasmanian Conservation Trust Inc www.tct.org.au