The Hodgman Liberal Government is rebuilding the forest industry. An important part of this is finding a Southern Residues Solution, to end subsidies and revitalise the industry in Southern Tasmania.
I’m extremely pleased to announce that the Government will tomorrow launch the Expressions of Interest process for selecting proponents for the commercial purchase and use of wood residues from southern Tasmania.
Since the political-led closure of Triabunna, southern forestry businesses have been looking for a cost-effective way to sell their residues.
The EOI process will cast a wide net to canvass all possible innovative solutions, arriving at a preferred solution around the end of the year.
The first step will see the Government call for potential commercial solutions to address the wood residues problem. It won’t just be restricted to export proposals – as we’ve always said, wood fibre exports is a second-best option to local processing, value-adding and local jobs, which is why this process will also be open to businesses who have a viable plan for on-island processing of residues.
The Government will then identify solutions it wants to consider and call for more detailed proposals. Binding bids will then be sought from these proposals.
The Government has designed the process in this way in order to provide greater certainty to the market that solutions will be considered before participants are required to invest substantial resources in the development of detailed proposals.
As we’ve made crystal clear – any solution which uses Macquarie Wharf would have to meet strict criteria, including offsite processing and no woodchip pile on the wharf. Let’s not forget, Macquarie Wharf is already a working port which exports hundreds of thousands of tonnes of commodities every year, including 60,000 tonnes of wood products.
We are starting to see green shoots in the forest industry with sawmilling jobs secured and a Plan to put Forestry Tasmania onto a long-term sustainable pathway.
We need to build on the momentum and this EOI process will chart out a clear pathway to a preferred solution.
The Hodgman Liberal Government has a Plan to rebuild the forest industry, drive economic growth and create jobs and we are already seeing under this Government, Tasmania is heading in the right direction.
Paul Harriss, Minister for Resources
