The Tasmanian Government is opposing a proposed federal scheme it claims will undermine the state’s forestry industry and put jobs at risk.
The scheme would allow states to generate carbon credits by excluding native forests from logging operations.
Business, Industry and Resources Minister Eric Abetz has called for the plan, championed by New South Wales, to be scrapped.
“Why on earth would the federal government be considering an anti-environment proposal which would seek to lock up native forestry?” he said.
“We are saying … dump it for the sake of the environment, for local jobs and for the needs of our housing sector, which needs wood.”
Diana Hallam from the Forest Products Association said the desire by some federal Labor ministers to shut the industry down was of “huge concern”.
“[The scheme is] particularly aimed at closing down native forestry and we believe the science behind it is rubbish,” she said.
“We’ve had strong support from the Prime Minister and Minister Collins in the past. We hope that will continue.”
Hallam said the forestry industry is sustainable, highly regulated and provides thousands of jobs across Australia.
“A lot of people think that we clear fell hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest,” she said. “We don’t. In most cases, we will selectively harvest and then we regenerate immediately.”
“For every tree that’s removed, at least one is immediately replanted.”
A federal government spokesperson said the policy around native forestry would not be changing and that it supports the communities that depend on the industry.
