Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Milne for her first supplementary question. To be clear: on 21 August 2011 Forestry Tasmania wrote to the Tasmanian and Australian governments advising that there were 41 coupes within the immediate protected area, which it believed are the minimum necessary to meet contractual agreements within economic constraints while respecting legislative and technical requirements including the Forest Practice Code. In accordance with the requirements of the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement, the IGA, the independent expert forest schedulers were appointed to determine what harvesting work is currently occurring in coupes within the nominated 430,000-hectare area nominated for conservation—that is, within that area—and whether there are practical alternative coupes outside the 430,000-hectare area for meeting these contractual wood-supply requirements.