The Hodgman Liberal Government’s Plan to rebuild the forest industry has already seen sawmilling jobs secured in Tasmania.
Last year, I wrote to sawmillers who had qualified for Labor and the Greens $11.7 million exit grant program and offered them a choice.
They could continue to take the full Labor-Green payout and exit or transition out of the industry – or they could access a portion of that original grant and use it to stay in Tasmania to help us rebuild this key industry.
Of the sawmills I wrote to, around 50 per cent – more than half a dozen – have indicated they’ll take us up on our offer and those who are yet to decide have until the end of the month to make a decision.
This is a clear vote of confidence in our long-term plan and by retaining sawmilling capacity we ensure that we have the capacity to grow the industry.
That stands in stark contrast to Labor and the Greens who crushed regional economies with their disastrous forest policy which halved state forest available to industry .
Not only did they force thousands of Tasmanians out of a job, they deprived the private sector of processing options and local markets and they reduced healthy competition in the sector.
We know there are no magic solutions but we are now heading in the right direction to reverse the Labor-Green damage and rebuild the industry by securing these sawmillers and keeping that capacity in the market.
The Liberal Government has a plan and we are implementing our Plan – unlike Labor who still have no policy, no plan and no credibility.
Paul Harriss, Minister for Resources
