Economy
Special Timbers Welfare State …
First published August 2
A mere 7 years after the last special species management plan was produced by Forestry Tasmania in 2010 comes another attempt at failed forest policy in Tasmania.
http://www.stategrowth.tas.gov.au/forestry/special_species_timber_management_plan
This new Plan will open up 420,000 ha of pristine public native rainforest and oldgrowth for taxpayer funded plundering by the special timbers industry. This includes 225,000 ha of rainforest and oldgrowth in conservation reserves.
The Plan is essentially a help-yourself DIY approach to public forest management, with an Open Season on the last of Tasmania’s rainforest and oldgrowth.
After the Executive Summary the Plan begins by trying to tell us how important the special timbers industry is; total industry employment, total value, etc.
This is like BHP justifying to its shareholders the mining of iron ore by counting the cars on the road, or the ships sailing on the world’s oceans, or how many cans of baked beans were produced last year.
It’s Welfare State nonsense!
When BHP actually justifies to its shareholders its iron ore operations it focuses on 3 things: 1) it’s a responsible miner, 2) it’s a well managed company, and 3) it’s profitable. If it tried to include the number of cars and ships in its justification its competitors would have it in court the next day in breach of the Corporations Act.
It’s like the Government telling us that Centrelink is a commercial business not welfare.
The Tasmanian Government believes in Welfare State Forestry, even whilst in competition with private tree growers!
So profitability, good commercial management and responsible forest management are out the door.
This draft Plan is not a business plan. It is a million miles from being a business plan.
This draft special timbers management plan begins with the premise that Tasmania’s last remaining oldgrowth and rainforests exist to be plundered … at taxpayers expense … for the exclusive benefit of a handful of local woodworkers!
This draft special timbers management plan does not begin with the premise that Tasmania’s premium timbers should be sold into competitive open markets to help fund schools, roads and hospitals.
Nor does the Plan even consider whether these forests are more valuable left untouched.
Here are the objectives of the Plan:
6.1 Objectives (p. 18)
The key objectives of the Plan are to:
• provide a management framework for the long-term, sustainable harvesting of special species timbers in Tasmania
• meet the requirements of the Forestry (RFI) Act, which states that the Plan must specify or contain information relating to:
• facilitate a cross-tenure management approach to the management of, and access to, special species timbers
• provide relevant information to assist land owners in assessing, and applicants in developing, special species timber harvesting applications.
The Plan fails to discuss:
• Commercial management or performance of public native forest management;
• Sales processes, competitive markets, reserve pricing;
• Harvesting methods and costs;
• Parliamentary oversight, accountability and transparency;
• Budget, staffing and resources. Who is going to pay for this and how much is it going to cost?
• Community input;
• FSC certification.
The role, if any, of Island Specialty Timbers is completely ignored.
The concept of sustainably harvesting 500 – 1000 year-old trees thinly scattered over remote, rugged terrain in western Tasmania is a complete joke!
Blatant Hypocrisy!
For the past 4 years the Hodgman Liberal Government has been blasting the “vested interests” of the forest industry and Forestry Tasmania for running a taxpayer-funded racket selling logs to mates at below market prices.
The Government has been promising no more subsidies to the forest industry whilst handing over another $300 million dollars.
And here we have the very same Government setting up another taxpayer-funded forestry racket giving away Tasmania’ most valuable timbers to the vested interests of the special timbers industry!
The hypocrisy would be breathtaking if it wasn’t so predictable!
In 2010 the special timbers industry was formally admitted into Tasmania’s Welfare State. This new draft management plan now takes that Welfare State to a whole new level of plunder, waste and welfare.
The only basis for a successful forest industry is profitable tree growing.
This Plan represents the exact opposite.
As a representative of Tasmanian private blackwood growers this Plan is deeply offensive.
As a professional forester there is nothing in this Plan that I can support.
The draft Plan is open for submissions until 9am Monday 28 August 2017. Submissions can be sent directly to the Department of State Growth by emailing: specialspecies@stategrowth.tas.gov.au
The Plan will then become law once it is signed and gazetted by the Minister.
*Gordon Bradbury is a forester who once thought that the forest industry was a real business and would make a great career. Boy was he wrong! 40 years experience has shown him that the forest industry is a sunset industry driven by ideology and politics.
• John Maddock in Comments: Well said Gordon Bradbury! A quick scan of the Department of State Growth’s Special Species Management Plan indicates that it is a desk job. I implore all who are reading this comment to compare the 2017 DSG plan with the Blueprint written by Timber Workers For Forests in 2004: HERE …
• Tell State Growth what you think HERE
• Greens: Destruction and Waste Define Liberals’ Forest Policy
FRIDAY, August 4 …
• Wilderness Society: Rainforest logging cost of production greater than ‘capacity to pay’ Hodgman: rule out taxpayer subsidy for logging in conservation reserves. Premier Will Hodgman’s draft plan to log oldgrowth and rainforests within Tasmania’s Reserve Estate demonstrates that a sawmill’s ‘capacity to pay’ for logs is likely to be less than the real cost of producing those logs, prompting calls for Premier Hodgman to rule out subsidising rainforest logging …