log-spiking – “Tasmania’s native forestry operations produce responsibly-sourced wood that is both renewable and sustainable,” said Minister for Resources Guy Barnett at an appearance at McKay Timbers this week. He spoke about alleged log-spiking incidents that are still under investigation. “Unfortunately, McKay Timbers was one of the mills recently targeted, with more than 30 spikes being found in logs harvested from a Permanent Timber Production Zone in the Central Highlands. Apart from costing McKay Timbers about $17,000 in damaged equipment, it also had the potential to cause grievous injuries to mill workers.” The Minister did not respond to a TT enquiry about was doing the targeting. His prepared statement did however say that: “the Tasmanian government supports the right to peacefully protest but we must also ensure hard-working Tasmanians can go to work and run their legal businesses free from threats and disruption, which is the reason for our Workplace Protection Laws.”
Cassy O’Connor MP, Greens Leader and Forests spokesperson, said Barnett “is at it again” in response. “He’s whipping up fear and loathing in the community over forests, with unfounded allegations over tree spiking to deflect from his hopeless mismanagement of the portfolio,” she said. “The day after Joan Rylah’s anti-protest laws Bunnings faux pax, and before the police investigation has been finalised, Guy Barnett is out publicly peddling dangerous mistruths. There is zero evidence any conservationist has spiked trees in any production forest. There never has been. Every time a fraudulent claim is made by the industry or political trouble makers like Guy Barnett, it has been debunked. In fact, previous tree spiking incidents have proven to be the work of logging interests with the aim of falsely accusing forest defenders. Mr Barnett is a disgrace. If he has evidence of deliberate tree spiking, he needs to produce it.” She labelled it ‘highly improper’ for a Minister of the Crown to be pre-empting police findings.
Dean Griggs & Ben Shaw.
new Derwent Valley GM – Dean Griggs has been appointed as the new General Manager at Derwent Valley Council for a period of four years. He was selected from a field of 27 applicants from across Australia. Griggs worked for nine years as an executive at City of Melbourne, leading Business and Tourism, Social Investment and Community Safety and Wellbeing. His experience includes a strong focus on public policy, community development, marketing, tourism and economic development with expertise in visitor strategy, retail and business precinct development. DV Council said they recognised the natural alignment of Dean’s skills and experience with Council’s strategic plan as well as his understanding, and experience in ‘place making’ changes.
Derwent Valley Mayor Ben Shaw explained: “Our strategic plan has a strong community focus on economic development, driving tourism, increasing our rates base and a real focus on creating a place for people to live, work and invest. Council felt that rather than a ‘career general manager’, our new General Manager needed to closely understand our strategic direction and demonstrate an entrepreneurial acumen for much needed investment in our region.” Additionally, of significant importance was “a capacity and willingness in our General Manager to be able to walk down our main street and talk with our community about their aspirations, needs and concerns,” Mayor Shaw said.
Closing The Gap – Tasmania is now a signatory to the new National Agreement on Closing the Gap. The four Priority Reform areas of the Agreement are to:
(1) formalise partnerships to involve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in decisions which affect them;
(2) build the capacity of Aboriginal organisations to deliver services, and fund these organisations to deliver services currently delivered by mainstream organisations;
(3) expose racism in government institutions, and engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on significant changes to government policies which affect them; and
(4) share data and information with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and communities.
The Priority Reform areas are underpinned by broad and measurable targets across education, employment, health and wellbeing, justice, safety, housing, land and waters, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
“This historic Agreement builds upon the important work the Tasmanian government has done in recent years in the journey of reconciliation and resetting the relationship with Tasmanian Aboriginal communities,” said Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Mark Shelton. “The Tasmanian Government will now work closely with all Tasmanian Aboriginal communities to develop the Tasmanian Government’s Implementation Plan.”
Peter Whish-Wilson – Tasmanian Greens announced that Senator Peter Whish-Wilson will be the lead Senate candidate for the Federal election. State Convenor Scott Jordan said that Senator Whish-Wilson was elected as lead candidate directly by the membership in a recent ballot.
“Peter has been an outstanding Senator for the state of Tasmania and representative of the Greens Party’s values and I am thrilled the party membership has preselected Peter to be our candidate for the forthcoming federal election,” said Jordan.
Senator Whish-Wilson said: “Whether it’s taking up the fight to introduce and keep JobKeeper and JobSeeker, putting the banks on notice through the royal commission, or saving Tasmanian climate science jobs in 2016, I’m proud to have the opportunity to fight for my community. After eight years in parliament, I’m fired up more than ever, and inspired by the people I meet every day. I’m still convinced that politics can be a force for good, that we can and must do better for our communities and future generations, especially by protecting our precious Tasmanian forests and oceans. At this difficult time in our history, we have before us the opportunity to support Tasmanians with a plan that both tackles the climate crisis and economic inequality, whilst creating new jobs and industries.”
Port Sorell – Police received a number of emergency calls regarding a man carrying a knife and driving erratically in the Narawntapu National Park near Port Sorell on Thursday morning. Inspector Steve Jones said that police and family held serious concerns for the man’s welfare.
“The man allegedly drove through Port Sorell, hitting multiple vehicles before crashing at the intersection of Wilmot and Griffiths Streets. No members of the public were injured during the incident, however two members of the public bravely came to the aid of two other people after their vehicle was crashed into by the vehicle driven by the man,” he said. “The man was quickly disarmed by police officers with the deployment of OC spray and safely taken into custody a short time later.” Inspector Jones thanked the Port Sorell community for their assistance in providing information leading to the man being safely taken into custody. “This was a traumatic incident for everyone involved, and I’d like to thank the community as well as other members of the public for their understanding and help in safely resolving the situation,” Inspector Jones said.
unemployment – statistics released this week by the ABS show the greater Hobart and Launceston regions have been most affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. Greater Hobart has lost 10,500 jobs since February, the most of any region. Launceston and the north-east has lost 3,700 jobs. Shadow Treasurer David O’Byrne said even these ‘horror statistics’ failed to tell the full story.
“To be counted as unemployed, a person needs to be actively looking for work,” he said. “With just one job available for every 20 job seekers, that’s simply not realistic. The real unemployment rate in Greater Hobart is 13.5%, and it’s 10.5% in Launceston.” O’Byrne said while the scale of the economic challenge facing Tasmania was extremely serious, the Government’s response so far had not been good enough. “On Monday we had the Premier’s economic recovery taskforce pushing the government to implement measures that were already supposed to be government policy, such as the Buy Local policy, the apprenticeship quota and affordable housing construction. On Tuesday we had the Premier admitting he has completely bungled the acquisition of new Spirit vessels, which are the biggest infrastructure project in Tasmania’s history and will be an essential part of recovery for our tourism industry and important for our export industries. Now today the Federal Government has predicted that unemployment will continue to get worse until Christmas. Labor’s COVID-19 Recovery Package provides a range of constructive suggestions the Premier could implement tomorrow. These ideas will get Tasmanians back into jobs, help those hardest hit by the pandemic and create a better, fairer and more resilient economy and society.”
