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Nats Join Greens To Lock Up East Gippsland TimberThe Independent Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, has condemned Gippsland’s Upper House representatives for joining with the Greens in State Parliament this week to lock up some of the region’s best available timber resource By Craig Ingram - 11th December 2009 - Back to News Without any guarantees from government on where the replacement timber will come from.
Mr Ingram said the debate on the Parks and Crown Land Legislation Amendment (East Gippsland) Bill in the Upper House this week has seen Labor and the National/Liberal coalition joining hand in hand with the Greens to lock up more timber resource.
"The coalition MLCs made much comment during the debate about guarantees and commitments from government on gaining access to the timber currently covered by Special Protection Zones (SPZ) established under the Regional Forest Agreements," Mr Ingram said.
"The timber industry knows that while the timber contained in SPZs can be made available for commercial harvest, this will potentially be a most difficult process.
"The government should have -- in good faith -- started this transfer process from SPZs to General Management Zones (GMZ) before the Bill to lock up the new old growth reserves and extend the parks was introduced.
The Minister for Environment’s comments during the committee process would give no real confidence to the industry or opposition and the fact that the Greens have fully backed this Bill should send real warning signs to the industry.
"The offset resource should have been identified and delivered before the Bill was passed by the coalition.
"My calls to release the overdue Industry Transition Taskforce report have fallen on deaf ears.
"For the National Party this sell out is particularly hypocritical as they have made repeated comments on their opposition to these proposals and their so-called support for the region’s timber industry.
"The Nats may be back in coalition, but this week it was hard to tell if they were in coalition with the Liberals or with the Greens," Mr Ingram concluded.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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