Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was not planning to speak on this legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Cost Recovery) Bill 2014 and amendments, until I heard the contribution from the member for Wills. I remind the member for Makin opposite that, in fact, in respect to the Tasmanian World Heritage extension—an extension of 100,000 hectares under the government's proposal; that is something we should all celebrate—the Tarkine has nothing to do with it. The Tarkine—I should say the so-called Tarkine—is nothing to do with the proposed extension of the existing World Heritage area. What is proposed to be extended is a number of areas that have been working forests not for 50 years, not for 100 years, but for over 150 years in some instances. In certain cases—and I can name locations in the Liffey, which falls within my electorate of Lyons—the only heritage value is that of the remains of the industrial log-hauling equipment that are quite well preserved in these forests, surrounded by what were supposedly forests that have been destroyed. They are now, in an irony that is not lost on many, worthy of listing as part of the World Heritage estate.

The World Heritage extension was born out of a failed Tasmanian forestry agreement process. It was based entirely on politics, not on good policy or science. It was negotiated by an industry that was hijacked—an industry that was on its knees by virtue of a political coincidence when my state was held ransom in the state parliament by the Labor Party, which had formed an alliance with the Greens. This coincided with a federal parliament that was also beholden to and dependent upon the Greens for their support and their survival. The final piece of that puzzle was that the minister responsible at the time, the member for Watson, was quite happy to be there for the fight. He was supporting the initiatives and proposals being put forward by the environmental movement in my state.

I stand here for only one reason. I was prepared to speak up. The community of Lyons believed that the former member would stand up for something that he had been a strong supporter of for many years. He was there for all those years but, when finally his vote was going to count for something, where was he? He was nowhere to be seen. His vote counted for nothing. He was not prepared to stand up for the communities that had supported him for 20 years.

The damage that has been done to my state as a result of this coincidence of misfortune is nothing less than palpable. I feel for the young people. We are doing everything we can. Many of the measures we have announced over the last six months are entirely directed at helping the young people and the regional and rural communities that make up the electorate of Lyons, which I am proud to represent. They are in desperate need and we are doing what we can to restart the engine in Tasmania.

This process and the process demanded by the World Heritage Committee—and it is a principle of this whole process—involves community consultation. It involves consultation with the broader community and it involves particularly consultation with adjoining landowners. We have now private landowners surrounded by areas that are proposed to be listed as World Heritage who had no consultation. They were completely ignored in this process. ICOMOS, one of the advisory bodies to the World Heritage Committee, in fact confirmed this when they raised concerns about the listing in the initial stages because there was no consultation with the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. What fixed that? The promise of half a million dollars from the member for Watson, who at the time was the responsible minister. I do not know what happened to that half a million dollars. I will follow that up. They were prepared to do anything. This was a political process only.

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