The Hodgman Liberal Government is rebuilding the forest industry after it was left decimated by Labor and the Greens.
It was under the former Government that Forestry Tasmania was hit with a perfect storm of the three Gs - the GFC, the collapse of Gunns, and then finally, the Green-Labor government.
When Gunns withdrew from native forest harvesting and the forest industry, Forestry Tasmania needed careful support from the Government.
Instead, it was ripped apart with the disastrous Forest Deal which retired more than 150,000 cubic metres of sawlog production, caused thousands of job losses, halved FT's production forest, and forced significant write-downs to FT's balance sheet.
As a result, FT has recorded consecutive operating losses and in the two years following the disastrous Forest Deal the total amount paid to Forestry Tasmania from the budget by Labor and the Greens was nearly $100 million and Labor Leader Bryan Green is again calling for money to be put into Forestry Tasmania at the expense of front line services.
As promised, the Hodgman Government stopped this support to FT from the budget, instead providing a $30 million equity transfer from TasNetworks so a complete review and rethink of the way FT operates could occur.
We committed to put the business on a long-term sustainable footing and to end the funding from the Consolidated Fund and the Ministerial Statement I will be delivering tomorrow will confirm that is the case – not one red cent from the Consolidated Fund for FT’s commercial operations.
It will also be made clear that we will not be seeking additional Commonwealth funding for FT as the Greens suggested.
The Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to rebuilding our forest industry and putting Forestry Tasmania onto a long-term, sustainable pathway.