14 January 2025

The Federal Coalition is renewing its calls for the Federal Labor Government to stand by its commitment to Tasmania’s native forestry sector and not let businesses and jobs be killed off by stealth.

This comes after Bendigo Bank has recently indicated that it would not lend to a Tasmanian business involved in sustainable native forestry practices for ‘ESG’ reasons, putting at risk its viability and the viability of all businesses to responsibly conserve forests within the state and, importantly, employ Tasmanians.

The Prime Minister made a commitment to Tasmanians that forestry industry workers would “have a better future” under his Government. Federal Shadow Environment, Fisheries and Forestry Minister, Senator Jonno Duniam, argues that this has not been the case:

“Tasmania’s native forestry sector has never been in greater danger over the last 20 years than it has been under the current Federal Labor Government. Businesses are under threat while the Federal Forestry Minister, a Tasmanian no less, stands idly by and lets activists bully them towards administration.”

“I encourage the Federal Labor Government to honour its commitment to support our state’s workers. They need to do all that they can to ensure that businesses are able to obtain finance so that they can continue their world-leading, sustainable practices. Anything short of that is a failure in its mandate and responsibility to Tasmanians.”

“We manage our forests better than anywhere else in the world. Under Labor, and especially after their bans on native timber harvesting in Victoria and Western Australia, more and more timber is being imported from counties that don’t share our high environmental standards. This has the perverse effect of being worse for the environment.”

“The Federal Coalition will not take a backward step in supporting Tasmania’s forestry industry. That will again be evidenced by the policies we will take to the Federal election.”