Tasmania’s forests: pushing a Greens’ vision onto unwilling locals

For their part, the State Opposition have called for an election to decide the issue and their leader, Will Hodgman, symbolically tore-up a copy of the Intergovernmental Agreement at a rally in Hobart last weekend. While North West Coast Liberal Senator, Richard Colbeck, has committed to moving several motions in Federal Parliament condemning the Intergovernmental Agreement on the next day of sitting.

For the most part, these substantial developments have been ignored by mainland media coverage of the process which has neglected to explain that the 'peace deal' process has never been about delivering an enduring compromise, but forcing the timber industry to agree to disappear in return for desperately needed financial compensation.

The significance of what the mainland media has or hasn't reported is that the majority of the Greens supporter base has expectations based on flawed premises formed in ignorance of the real situation in Tasmania. These expectations are effectively shaping a future that the majority of Tasmanians don't support.

On the recent Q & A program, the likelihood of what this may ultimately mean for Tasmania was encapsulated in a tweet read out by host Tony Jones, in which it was mooted that the state was on the way to becoming "a retirement village in a national park".

The positive response to this prospect by panellists Garry Bailey, Editor of the Hobart Mercury, and Christine Milne, Deputy Leader of the Greens, was both cringe-worthy and undoubtedly troubling for those amongst Tasmania's youth who would prefer to remain in the state but have higher aspirations than low-paid careers in hospitability or aged care.