Labor has no credibility on forestry with a long history of destroying jobs and locking up the industry.
The Labor party’s election commitment was to ”support the woodchip export facility going through the appropriate planning process”.
The need for action on southern residues is entirely a problem of Labor’s own making.
After promising billions of dollars of new investment and thousands of forestry jobs at the 2010 election, Labor signed the disastrous forestry deal with the Greens to save their own jobs.
This was at the expense of the more than 4000 hardworking Tasmanian forestry workers who lost their jobs as a result of Labor’s betrayal.
Labor spent $25 million to facilitate the sale and subsequent destruction of the Triabunna mill – shutting off direct market access for bulk fibre shipments from the South of the State.
The Hodgman Liberal Government has since been working with industry to develop a long-term replacement.
Once again, Labor are sniping from the sidelines and are too caught up in an internal power battle between Rebecca White and David O’Byrne to get their facts straight.
They’d be better off taking their share of responsibility for the Labor-Green jobs debacle.
While Labor’s hypocrisy is disappointing, it is ultimately expected from a gutless party.