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For the past 30+ years we have been told by politicians and the forest industry that Tasmania’s public native forest industry is 100% sustainable and internationally certified (PEFC/Responsible Wood).
We have been told that ad nauseam!
But few people outside politics and the forest industry now believe the story anymore.
We have been told a lie!!
Never mind the incredible cost to Tasmanian taxpayers and our public forests.
So we now hear that the so called special timbers industry is running out of oldgrowth timbers.
If half of what Mr Denman says of Government policy and STT management is true then Tasmanians should have no faith in either their politicians or their public servants.
With the Tasmanian public native forest industry likely to be shut down within the next 10 years, the special timbers industry are now crying poor. They want to quarantine their special timbers forest welfare from the closure of STT by creating a new government authority just for their welfare.
This article in The Mercury newspaper Tuesday 7th February is perfectly timed just a few days before the start of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart. It wouldn’t surprise me if a deal has already been stitched up with the Tasmanian State government to establish a Special Timbers Authority, and the Premier will announce it at the Festival this weekend.
The idea that the politicians who created this mess are now going to fix it is utterly laughable!!
And of course the subtext for this article is that if this proposal doesn’t happen then the wooden boat festival will cease to exist. As I said in my previous blog the Tasmanian government and the Tasmanian community are being held to ransom by the wooden boat community and the rest of the special timbers rentseekers.
“The failure [of the government] to follow through with an implementation strategy, coupled with a failure to ensure that their GBE [ie. STT] was fulfilling its special timbers role….” says enough! For the Government, special timbers is just another political football to gain votes at election time, nothing else!! All promise! No delivery!! And the wooden boat community expect this to change?
The plundering of Tasmania’s oldgrowth forests will continue for many years yet it seems. National Parks and Reserves will not be safe either I suspect.
Mr Denman deliberately ignores the cost to the Tasmanian taxpayer and to Tasmanias oldgrowth forests. Matters of welfare and plunder are apparently unimportant to the wooden boat community.
There is no scientific, economic or social model on which the Special Timbers Authority can stand. It is a smoke screen for plunder-as-usual!
“Most people in the special timbers sector and most of the public would support forests managed for long-term selective harvesting and wise use of small volumes of special timbers”. I would love to see where Mr Denman gets his data for such a grandiose statement. Given the history of politics and the forest industry in Tasmania that really is utter delusion!
“Any such [special timbers] authority would be small, fit-for-purpose and self-funded through log royalties, a simple solution that would work for the sector”. I would classify that statement as a blatant lie!
Industry Felled by greed, ignorance, corruption and politics, and that includes every single forest welfare recipient/rentseeker.
The idea of cutting down 500-1000+ year-old trees to satisfy a handful of boat owners in the 21st century is insanity writ large. Welcome to Tasmania!
With this article in The Mercury newspaper the Australian Wooden Boat Festival has deliberately and intentionally march into the forest war zone! Both the Australian Wooden Boat Festival and the Special Timbers Authority will become the focus of community protest and demonstration. That is 100% guaranteed and apparently what the wooden boat community wishes.
Tasmanian Blackwood Growers Cooperative 