Soon after it came into office the Hodgman Government determined there should be a review of Forestry Tasmania (FT) to establish its place in the industry and what the Government termed its “pathway to long-term sustainability”.
Like the majority of Tasmanians, I believe FT has an important role in the stewardship of our public forests, but that role has become compromised over the years because of the commercial role that FT adopted in selling and marketing timber and, of course, the incessant pressure on its staff from forest activists.
It got to the stage where many FT staff did not advertise where they worked.
At the same time, FT became a liability on the public purse rather than contributing to it.
That review of the business recommended job cuts and the sale of hardwood plantations. At the same time the company had to find $40 million in savings over the next two years.
It is still unclear how many jobs will go. My reading is that FT has said about 50, but unions claim it is more than 80.
According to Unions Tasmania state secretary Steve Walsh, these workers are “just being treated like disposable goods” and the redundancies are a broken promise.
There is more than a hint of hypocrisy here. Unions supported the former Labor government pouring money into FT to the tune of $30 million a year, which had to be at the expense of people being employed in other government areas, notably education, health and human services.
They also backed the closed-door, secret deal that put hundreds of forestry workers on the scrap heap as the Greens and their fellow travellers went to the World Heritage Committee to lock even more of Tasmania up in perpetuity.
Therefore, it’s a bit rich of them to complain now that a government, not of their persuasion, wants to axe FT staff.
The process that FT and the Government are following is the right one. The organisation has been reviewed and the way forward is being implemented.
If there is to be no ongoing taxpayer subsidy of its operations, then there has to be belt tightening. FT is consulting with its staff around the state to see how that can be achieved with the least disruption. In other words, if you want to go, go now.
My own view is that Tasmania cannot afford to lose FT’s pool of expertise. We have already lost the Co-operative Research Centre for Forestry based at the University of Tasmania. The science and research as well as nurturing of our forests are in the hands of the last forest scientists standing, at FT. We can’t afford to lose them. The forests can’t afford to lose them.
TFGA president Wayne Johnston
