Nick McKim and Vica Bayley need to be honest with Tasmanians and explain why they supported special species harvesting in the World Heritage Area under the Tasmanian Forest Agreement but don’t now.
The Upper House Amendments to the TFA allowed for special timbers to be made available from any of the reserved areas – including the World Heritage Area.
Nick McKim went on to vote for the Tasmanian Forest Agreement and The Wilderness Society welcomed the agreement, but now both have done a 180 and are attacking it.
This is another case of the Greens’ moving the goal posts, a sport they are world champions in.
We have indicated through this plan that we want to deal with the sensitive issue of the special species timber sector, and we will do so in close consultation with all stakeholders, including the United Nations.
We think it’s an iconic industry of Tasmania, it’s a very traditional one, and we want to make sure that we’re in a position to secure a resource, and so we’ve been working through those issues and will continue to do that in the context of the development of this management plan.
It’s entirely hypocritical for the Green movement to now oppose this, when they actively supported it, and in the case of Green MPs actually voted for it.
Paul Harriss, Minister for Resources
