It appears The Greens have adopted the current dogma that the ‘forest wars’ can be solved by simply ‘changing trees’.
This brings them in line with The Wilderness Society and probably the new Gunns board. The difficulty I have with this ‘solution’ is that it ignores the root cause of the problem, and in effect ‘blames the trees’.
Most of the damage to Tasmania’s ancient forests has been wreaked by the global bulk commodity woodchip industry.
Our conservation groups have now embraced the very industry that has done all the damage, and is trying to appease it by pointing it at MIS tree plantations.
The ‘problem’ is a human one and has nothing to do with trees.
Take another look at what has been driving this industry? A culture that rewards and legitimises rampant greed and environmental insanity. The same mentality that accomplished the near-genocide of the Tasmanian Aborigine, because they were supposedly killing sheep.
Would The Greens ‘solution’ to this problem have been to tell the graziers to shoot convicts instead? I don’t think so.
In a nutshell this is the depth of thinking by the Tasmanian Greens. Conformity and obedience have become preferred over analysis and debate. Is this why the Greens have melded so seamlessly into becoming the ‘left wing of the Labor Party’?
If Dick Adams were to ‘see the light’ and adopt our forest policy where would that leave The Greens? We can’t even budge Dick with his old forest policy.
The sad thing about the ‘forest treaty’ is that it’s not even going to work.
Gunns will always be unprofitable, just like most manufacturing in Tasmania. With our endless subsidies they will clear half the plantations, a bushfire will destroy the rest and they will again log high conservation forest.
That is if they even stop.
The ‘industry’ is basically dishonest and we have only ignored the real problem.
Our environmentalists must know they are on the wrong track, because they are careful to avoid supporting any ‘new plantations’. Tree-sitting in a mono culture by The Wilderness Society?
Hardly.
Like everyone else The Greens are stuck in a three year electoral cycle, in a world of thirty second sound bites and short attention spans.
Is this why we now come-up with dumbed-down policy that is anti-rural Tasmania?
I hope this has not been too deep for the Tasmanian Greens and that debate is still possible in what is now a major party.
Karl Stevens
Beaconsfield.
