*Pic: Ted Mead … The Tarkine …
The Hodgman Government’s new Cabinet, announced yesterday, represents a mixed bag that signals the importance of Tasmania’s national parks and reserves, whilst highlighting the lunacy of logging in the reserve estate and reducing its size and extent.
It also represents a significant surrender of Premier Hodgman’s personal pledge to ‘reset the relationship’ with Aboriginal people, the Aboriginal affairs portfolio being demoted to a junior minister whilst the plan to expand 4WD tracks on the Aboriginal cultural landscape of the takayna coast takes precedence.
Parks
While the Wilderness Society welcomes the raised status of Tasmania’s parks and reserves with the portfolio’s transfer to the responsibility of the Premier, its split away from Environment and combination together with Tourism signals an expanded push to privatise significant areas of publicly-owned and reserved land for commercial tourism development.
The Special Species Management Plan, published last year to allow logging inside hundreds of thousands of hectares of oldgrowth rainforest reserves like the Tarkine and Blue Tier, will present a particular challenge to the new Parks Minister. So too, should the Government again pursue it, will the idea to reverse 356,000 hectares of high conservation value forest reserves to give back to a logging industry that doesn’t want them.
“Splitting Parks away from the Environment portfolio and lumping it in with Tourism is a worrying sign regarding this Government’s commitment to the priority of protecting natural and cultural heritage values,” said Vica Bayley, spokesperson for the Wilderness Society.
“How Premier Hodgman manages the negative impacts of logging oldgrowth rainforest reserves and delisting other forest reserves will be one to watch in this coming term.”
Forests
The Hodgman Government failed to release a forest policy during the election campaign and reappointed Minister Guy Barnett, who dodged media interviews on forest policy ( https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/02/tasmanian-election-on-all-sides-forestry-is-the-issue-that-dare-not-speak-its-name ). His reappointment to the Resources portfolio looks set to maintain an anti-conservation approach to forests from the Hodgman Government, with policy development devoid of environmental, economic and community realities and failing to attract the support of even the logging industry.
“The Hodgman Government’s forestry agenda from the last term of government was characterised by failure, delusion and the ongoing subsidisation of the native forest sector through equity transfers, cost-shifting and the privatisation of the plantation estate.
Minister Barnett’s reappointment signals a continuation of this poor approach.
Environment
The Wilderness Society welcomes the reappointment of Elise Archer as Environment Minister and will immediately seek the opportunity to meet with her to discuss threats and opportunities with regards Tasmania’s environment. Tasmania’s environment is one of our most defining assets, but in an era of climate change, population growth and industrial expansion, it is under significant pressure.
Aboriginal Affairs
The demotion of Aboriginal Affairs from the portfolio responsibility of the Premier, to that of the previous government’s most underperforming minister, Jacquie Petrusma, speaks volumes to Tasmaina’s Aboriginal community and those who support Reconciliation.
It marks a significant surrender by the Premier and indicates the Government will continue to prioritise the politics associated with 4WD track expansion on the takayna coast over true attempts to reconcile with Aboriginal people.
“During the election campaign, the Aboriginal community ‘called out’ the Premier’s hypocrisy on his pledge to ‘reset the relationship’ with Aboriginal people, highlighting his plan to lay rubber matting over Aboriginal middens so vehicles can drive over them.”
“Offloading the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio looks like an acknowledgement of failure and an attempt to insulate the Premier from the shame that comes with bulldozing on with plans to build 4WD tracks across a nationally significant Aboriginal cultural landscape.
