a majority liberal Government will:
- Protect the 5,700 jobs currently employed and supported in the sector and deliver more than 300 new jobs through value-adding and better management of resources.
- Create a special $10 million fund over five years to support more on-island processing and value adding.
- Provide $1.15 million over three years to the Tasmanian Timber Promotions Board to value-add and sell Tasmanian timber products across the world – driving supply chain demand.
- Work with Sustainable Timber Tasmania and the Australian Government to develop a carbon offsets initiative.
- Re-prosecute Work Place Protection Laws because Tasmanian forestry workers deserve the right to go to work and earn a living for their families without threats and disruptions from radical protesters.
- Deliver long-term resource security for small sawmills across the state.
- Work with Sustainable Timber Tasmania to secure long-term resource supply for sawmills beyond 2027.
- Develop an Action Plan to replace or convert Tasmanian Government owned boilers from coal and gas to bio-fuel.
- Invest $150,000 over three years to address skills shortages and train the forestry industry leaders of tomorrow, working in partnership with Arbre Forest Industries.
- Establish a Diversity Action Plan Project to increase the gender and cultural diversity of the forestry sector (delivered by the Tasmanian Forest and Forest Products Network).
- Work hand in hand with industry to employ three female trainees and three Aboriginal trainees within the industry, over the next two years.
Tasmania has one of the highest proportions of reserved land in the world, with 51 cent of our land in formal reserves, and 58 per cent of our forests protected, never to be harvested.
Over one million hectares of Tasmania’s old growth forests are protected, and the overwhelming majority of trees harvested in Tasmania are plantation and regrowth forests.
Forestry in Tasmania is well-managed, sustainable and a critical job creating and community building industry that draws on Tasmania's natural resources.
Our sustainable forestry sector injects more than $1.2 billion annually to the State’s economy, and employs around 5700 direct and indirect jobs for Tasmanians, particularly in rural and regional areas.
From providing fine craft timber, to supporting essential activities, such as house construction, Tasmanians should rightly be proud of their world-class sustainable forest industry.
Our initiatives for the sector will drive investment and value-adding, creating upwards of 300 jobs, and importantly providing industry certainty to secure jobs and secure Tasmania’s future.
Create a special $10 million fund over five years to support more on-island processing and value adding
We will invest $10 million over five years to grow on-island processing and value-adding.
This will attract new businesses to Tasmania and allow existing businesses to invest and expand, creating hundreds of jobs in regional areas.
Downstream processing and value adding our resources will increase returns to Tasmania - with the potential to support the building and construction boom here and nationwide with value adding products such as high-value appearance grade veneers and load bearing timbers.
Provide $1.15 million over three years to the Tasmanian Timber Promotions Board to value-add and sell Tasmanian timber products across the world – driving supply chain demand
The majority Liberal Government will invest $1.15 million over three years in direct support for the Tasmanian Timber Board to help support industry to promote and advocate for our Tasmanian products locally and nationally.
This funding includes engaging a full time Wood Encouragement Policy Officer to promote the benefits of using Tasmanian wood, including to the building and construction sectors.
Work with Sustainable Timber Tasmania and the Australian Government to develop a carbon offsets initiative
It is acknowledged internationally that sustainable forest management has significant carbon management, social and economic benefits.
Wood is the ultimate renewable, both in storing carbon and reducing carbon emissions.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will work with Sustainable Timber Tasmania and the Australian Government to develop a carbon offsets initiative that better recognises our natural carbon storing timber resources, both plantation and native.
This will create opportunities across Tasmania to grow, store and trade carbon credits locally, nationally and internationally.
Re-prosecute Work Place Protection Laws because Tasmanian forestry workers deserve the right to go to work and earn a living for their families without threats and disruptions from radical protesters
It is the Liberals who have always stood firm in fighting for the rights of Tasmanians to go to work and earn a living, without threats and disruptions from radical protesters.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will re-prosecute our workplace protection legislation in Parliament to put an end to dangerous workplace invasions.
Securing the future for sawmillers and processers
A majority Liberal Government will work with Sustainable Timber Tasmania to immediately engage country sawmillers across the state to ensure long-term resource security, ensuring local businesses continue and regional jobs are protected.
We will also work with Sustainable Timber Tasmania to secure long-term resource supply for sawmills beyond 2027 – following release of the Sustainable Yield Report.
Develop an Action Plan to replace or convert Tasmanian Government owned boilers from coal and gas to bio-fuel
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will fund an Action Plan to investigate replacing Government owned fossil fuel burning gas and coal boilers to bio-fuel.
This will reduce our carbon footprint and create demand for bio-fuel production, which will drive investment and deliver jobs.
Investment into Skills and Training, working with Arbre Forest Industries
We will also address the current skills shortage and train the forestry industry leaders of tomorrow through co-investment with industry into the Arbre Forest Industry Training and Careers Hub – committing $150,000 over three years. This Launceston based advanced training centre will:
- Promote the industry as a genuine career path in Tasmanian schools, especially in regional areas.
- Provide ongoing training and skill attainment that supports a safe and sustainable workplace.
- Support contracting businesses, primarily based in regional Tasmania with an efficient support information resource that enables them to sustainably achieve best practice.
The Tasmanian forest industry is underpinned by a workforce that is regionally based and working primarily for family owned businesses. This investment will support these small businesses and create a pipeline that will attract, train and retain employees.
Establish a Diversity Action Plan Project to increase the gender and cultural diversity of the forestry sector (delivered by the Tasmanian Forest and Forest Products Network)
Importantly, people are always at the centre of successful industries and a re-elected Majority Liberal Government will partner with the Tasmanian Forest and Forest Products Network and invest to establish a Diversity Action Plan to increase the gender and cultural diversity of the resources sector.
As part of this, we will work hand in hand with industry to engage three new female, and three Aboriginal, trainees over the next two years.
Work currently underway:
- $500 000 for the Forestry Contractor Resilience program, as part of COVID-19 support to the industry.
Our record in Government:
- Overturned Labor and the Greens’ forest lock-up
- Delivered a 20-year extension of the Regional Forest Agreement.
- Facilitated a $5 million transfer to TasRail to increase TasRail’s capacity to store and transport logs efficiently.
- Restructured the public forestry business and secured a $60 million plantation rights sale to pay off debt, end Labor’s subsidies and provide for a $15 million return to taxpayers.
- Supported Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) to become financially profitable, delivering a profit each of the last three years and returning almost $20 million in dividends to the Tasmanian economy.
- Infrastructure developments to support southern forest industry including the Brighton rail hub, Parattah siding upgrades and the retention of the Hobart Port for the export of forest products (excluding woodchips).
- Created a $4 million Forest Industry Growth Plan marketing campaign to help reach our target of doubling the “industry value add” to $1.2 billion by 2036.
- Invested $2 million into the Tasmanian Timber Promotions Board.
- New Strategic Growth Plan for Tasmania’s Forests, Fine Timber and Wood Fibre – backed by funding of $4 million.
- Put Tasmania at the forefront of forestry innovation by securing the Launceston hub of the National Institute of Forest Products Innovation, backed by $4 million from the Australian and Tasmanian Governments.
- Australia’s first state wide Wood Encouragement Policy.
Labor-Green record (2010 to 2014):
- Smashed the industry by locking it up.
- The Labor-Green forest “deal” cost more than 4,000 forestry jobs - two out of every three jobs in the industry were lost in the five years to 2013.
- Labor Leader, Rebecca White, publicly said she had “no regrets” about that.
More recently:
- Labor and the Greens have opposed Workplace Protection laws to allow forest workers to go to work and earn a living.
- A Labor candidate has spoken at a Bob Brown Foundation against workplace protection laws.
- The Greens continue their misinformation campaign and attack on the industry.
Costing:
The total cost of this policy is $11.7 million over five years, including a Sustainable Timber Tasmania contribution of $5.85 million.