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

The care being taken to develop the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area Management Plan by the state government of Tasmania with the possible inclusion of some low-impact selective special timber harvesting is to be commended. I certainly welcome the visit by the World Heritage Committee's reactive monitoring mission to Tasmania in response to the state's development management plan. It will provide an accurate picture of the situation on the ground. However, I am still deeply concerned about the future of Tasmania's special timber sector through the impact from disastrous decisions made by the former environment minister, the member for Watson, under the previous Labor government.

The Tasmanian forest agreement resulted in a 93 per cent reduction in availability of non-blackwood specialty timbers and a tripling of the price in some cases of species such as myrtle, sassafras and celery-top pine. The sector employs more than 2,000 people full time and another 8½ thousand part time. It underpins the continuation of Tasmania's highly prized woodcraft culture. Yet we have learned since inheriting the Tasmanian forest agreement that the harvest areas for special timbers which were chosen have proved in many cases to be empty vessels, as they include rocky mountain tops, open-cut mines and thousands of hectares of button-grass plains.

Why did the former minister advise the World Heritage Committee that the special timber industry's needs could be met from outside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area when clearly no modelling was performed? Why did he allow people with no experience to choose specialty timber areas without even consulting the sector? If you support the specialty timber sector in Tasmania, you must support the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area draft management plan—because you cannot harvest trees where they do not grow. (Time expired)

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