The Liberal Government has a long-term Plan for Tasmania to grow the economy and create jobs.
Key to our Plan is rebuilding the forestry sector to create a vibrant, jobs rich and sustainable industry operating to the world’s highest environmental standards.
To achieve this, we are announcing a review to the Permanent Native Forest Estate Policy (PNFEP) early next year.
This review will be open to public consultation and creates a level playing field for all stakeholders to have their say.
The review of the PNFEP has been triggered by next year’s review of the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA).
The RFA review was due in 2012, however Bryan Green failed to facilitate the review while Labor was busy kow-towing to the Greens on the Tasmanian Forest Agreement.
The PNFEP restricts clearing in Tasmania so a minimum of 95 per cent of our native forest, present as at 1996, is retained across the State.
Currently, private properties can clear up to 40 hectares of native forest per year. At current clearance rates, Tasmania is not expected to reach the 95 per cent target until 2016.
On January 1 2015, a ban was to come into effect reducing private properties to clearing up to 20 hectares over any five year period.
However, we will defer this restriction while the review of the PNFEP takes place.
This will allow the RFA and PNFEP to be reviewed unencumbered by restrictions caused by Labor and the Green’s inaction. The minimum 95 per cent of native forest remains in place while the review is underway.
The Liberal Government is committed to our forestry and agriculture sectors, that’s why we’ve committed $500,000 over two years in the 14-15 State Budget for the RFA review.
We are now cleaning up the mess Labor and the Greens left our forestry sector in – a mess which led to thousands of job losses and 400-thousand hectares of land locked up.
We have a plan for our forest sector and we are getting on with the job and delivering it.
Paul Harriss, Minister for Resources
