Anonymous says Tasmania lacks any responsible adults with the testicular fortitude to allow the Tasmanian voters a voice in the management of their forests. “Until we get some in parliament we are doomed to watch this disaster roll on and on and on, wrecking the state as it goes. It is time to grow up and act like responsible adults, not squabbling yard apes.”
The forestry issue will never, ever be resolved until we get a government prepared to step outside the embrace of vested interest groups and actually allow the entire Tasmanian population to have a voice.
The only way I can see that happening is through a referendum that asks the following questions:
1 What percentage of forest cover should be available for production?
2 What rotation length should that production forest be managed for?
Some explanation of the difference between a 12 year rotation for woodchip versus 250 years for prime saw logs would be required but any cost to get an informed response pales in comparison to the huge impost this ongoing shitfight places on our community.
The results of this referendum would inform and give a mandate to the resultant production forest management laws, determine the annual output of various wood products and the industries able to be supported, and give certainty to those prepared to invest in downstream processing. It would also put an end to any claims of legitimacy by those who continue to argue for locking up ever more area in reserves or those who seek more timber to cut.
This has always been the missing part of the numerous greed driven “solutions” to this farce, of which the TAC proposal is the latest. Pretending that various interest groups divying the state’s assets up amongst themselves is democracy at work is long past rotten and now has all the appeal of dog shit on the car mats. Elected representatives of the people apologising to proponents of such madness is equally appealing.
Unfortunately we lack any responsible adults with the testicular fortitude to allow the Tasmanian voters a voice in the management of THEIR forests. Until we get some in parliament we are doomed to watch this disaster roll on and on and on, wrecking the state as it goes.
It is time to grow up and act like responsible adults, not squabbling yard apes.
