The Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to rebuilding Tasmania’s forest industry by encouraging new investment and jobs growth.
Achieving best practice standards is challenging in any industry, but is particularly important in forestry where the community rightly expects businesses to operate safely and sustainably.
The Forestry Better Business Program will help forest contractors by providing an efficient online tool to identify and maintain best practice standards.
Developed by ForestWorks in collaboration with the Australian Forest Contractors Association and supported with Australian and Tasmanian government funding, the program offers one agreed set of standards that is readily accessible.
This is an improvement on past practice where forest managers used different standards and methods.
The program will also allow for improved communication between contracting businesses and forestry managers, and provide a mechanism for accrediting businesses operating to high standards.
An additional outcome of the development of the program was the creation of a single Work Health and Safety Audit Tool to support businesses demonstrate and report their compliance to the range of applicable safety standards.
This new program, launched today, aligns with the Liberal Government’s vision of an increasingly professional forest industry that adheres to best practice standards in all facets of its operation.
We commend ForestWorks and all involved on the development of this program and wish our forest contractors and managers every success.