Media release – Dean Winter MP, Tasmanian Labor Leader, 18 April 2024
Supporting regional timber jobs
Labor supports jobs in regional Tasmania. It is what we believe in and what we fight for.
I am making it my priority to talk to workers in key industries in the regions including those in the timber industry.
Labor stands for jobs in regional communities and the timber industry is a key part of that.
I am pleased to be joined at Torenius Timber at Forcett today by Labor’s candidate for the Legislative Council seat of Prosser, Bryan Green, and Deputy Leader Anita Dow.
As the former Minister for Resources, Bryan has the experience and knowledge to work with the industry to protect jobs without reigniting the chaos and uncertainty of the forestry wars. The industry doesn’t want another forest war, nor do Tasmanians.
Regardless of what the Greens, JLN or the independents do in the new Parliament, Labor will continue to stand with the industry and the jobs it sustains.
My offer to Jeremy Rockliff is bipartisanship on forestry. The industry has repeatedly said it does not want the reopen the forest wars, Labor agrees and that should be respected by the Premier.
The best thing that could happen for the Bob Brown Foundation and the Greens is another forest war. It would be the worst thing that could happen to these workers.
The Liberal government needs to stop treating the industry as a political wedge and instead work with it and with Labor to ensure there is long-term certainty for jobs and the economy.
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 18 April 2024
Conservationists condemn native forest logging lock in by Labor and Liberal Tasmania
Bob Brown Foundation has condemned today’s announcement by Labor that they will back in the Liberals for extending native forest logging destruction and wildlife killing. The Grand Coalition of ‘dig it up and cut it down’ Laborials is now back governing Tasmania.
“Tasmania’s Labor and Liberal parties are not sleep-walking into the climate and extinction crisis, they are deliberately running towards it by locking in native forest logging at a time when the destruction must end. As extreme weather events, like floods and fires intensify. All Tasmanians, including regional Tasmanians, will benefit greatly from the secure protection of the island’s native forests,” said Jenny Weber, Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaigns Manager.
“All native forests in Tasmania must be off limits from logging destruction, The climate and extinction crises have worsened since Labor was last in Government. They accuse the Liberals of reigniting the ‘forest wars’ but instead of getting behind protection of our precious native forests, they throw their weight behind subsidising their destruction. Native forest logging should have ended across the state years ago and must end now without further delay,” said Jenny Weber.
“Native forest logging has been leaching millions of dollars from the public purse while annihilating vast tracts of unique life-giving forests. It has sent wildlife like the swift parrot to the brink of extinction and is continuing to contribute to global heating,” said Jenny Weber.
“Plus it makes Tasmanians more vulnerable to wildfires as an intact forest is far more resilient to fire than a logged one,” said Jenny Weber.
“Tasmania’s taxpayers are paying for this destruction as both the Labor and Liberal parties hold our state back and further undermine any remnant reputation for ‘clean and green’. The employment opportunities and economic growth opportunities are from managing protected forests and the plantation estate which already employs more people in regional Tasmania than logging native forests,” said Jenny Weber.
“If he wants to see world’s best practice, Dean Winter should skip over the ditch to New Zealand where a Labor government ended native forest logging in 2002, regional tourism jobs have increased and they are now exporting plantation timbers to Australia.”
