The Hodgman Liberal Government’s election commitment to rip up the job-destroying forest deal has reached its final phase with passage of our legislation through the House of Assembly early this morning.
Under the legislation, 356,000 hectares of production forest set for permanent lock-up under Labor and the Greens, will be made available for harvesting from July 1, 2018.
This will not only save jobs but provide the opportunity for further jobs growth within the industry, and enable us to end ongoing taxpayer subsidies to the forest industry.
Last night also demonstrated that Labor and the Greens are just as close as they ever were – repeatedly voting against the bill, and the views of the Tasmanian people as expressed at the election.
They have learned nothing in the three years since the election, and still can’t be trusted to stand up for rural and regional communities around Tasmania.
It's important to note the bill was debated for almost 12 hours, one of the longest debates in the history of the Tasmanian Parliament.
If the Greens had had their way we would have literally kept debating through the weekend and into next week, with pointless amendments and meaningless filibustering.