Forest Minister Guy Barnett has continued his creative interpretation of all things forestry with a delusional interpretation of Wilderness Society poll results to try spin support for his proposition to log high conservation value forest reserves.

The poll shows that less than one in four Tasmanian’s and less than 40% of Liberal voters support his plan to reverse reserves and log in oldgrowth and high conservation value forests set aside for protection.

“When you add this to Minister Barnett’s disingenuous use of plantation export growth as a motivation to log forest reserves and the fact he has sidelined his own Ministerial Council in decision making, its clear the Minister has a poor grasp on the state of play,” said Vica Bayley, spokesperson for the Wilderness Society.

“Less than one in four Tasmanians support logging in the reserved forests, there is no industry support and no credible case beside the politics of division and a perceived advantage this will give the Liberals at the next election.

“Forestry Tasmania didn’t request logging in the reserves, the Ministerial Advisory Council didn’t know about it and Minister Barnett’s own voters don’t like it.

“Logging reserves is a stupid plan that will undermine market confidence, condemn Forestry Tasmania to continued FSC failure and reignite a conflict most Tasmanian’s have moved on from.

“If this is how Minister Barnett interprets opinion poll numbers, Tasmanians should be extremely concerned about his ability to understand Forestry Tasmania’s financial and resource projection figures.”

Below are Mr Barnett’s Comment and attached again is the poll …

“Can I first of all really welcome the Tasmanian Wilderness Society opinion poll and the survey which confirms support for nearly 2 out of every 3 for the Tasmanian forest industry,ahh, the continuation of harvesting in Tasmania and continued and further logging across Tasmania. So that’s an amazing result, we welcome that, the wilderness society i thank them for their, ah, spending their money so that this information is made available and public support is well known.

Secondly in terms of that poll the support for the governments plans for forestry in Tasmania and over 40% support for those plans even before the full details of the plans have been laid out.

Download poll …

Wilderness_-_24_Oct_16_-_Tasmania_Forestry.pdf

EARLIER on Tasmanian Times …

• Poll results show less than a quarter of Tasmanians support Premier’s plan to log reserves
Vica Bayley Tasmanian Campaign Manager The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) Inc.