Tasmania's forestry debacle

Regardless of its final outcome, this so-called 'forest peace' process has effectively resulted in the Australian and Tasmanian Governments out-sourcing forest policy to ideologically-driven career activists who know what they don't like, but not much else; who are ideologically representative of only a minority of the population; and who have no compunction in deceitfully disseminating misinformation to get their way.

The concern for other Australian primary industries should be that it could easily happen to them. Already in Tasmania the focus of the ENGOs is turning to commercial fishing, mining and aquaculture, while the use of pesticides in agriculture and plantation forestry continues to be a target.

Recently, the Executive Director of the Tasmanian Minerals Council opined that at least one ENGO encouraged by the success of tactics used against the state's forest industry, had signalled its intention to attack the banks, shareholders and markets of a mining company which had nominated several projects for assessment in Tasmania's north west. Last week a poorly informed article published on the widely-read political and current affairs website, the Asian Correspondent, about the supposed threats of mining in north western Tasmania's Takine region, arguably signified the start of the process of misinformation.

It is hard to combat such tactics. However, a good start would be for the Federal and State Governments to resist rather than reward Greens and ENGO attempts to manipulate resource use policies through campaigns of misinformation against already well-regulated Australian rural industries. This is probably unlikely at present given that the Australian and Tasmanian Governments are reliant on symbiotic relationships with Greens politicians.

However, it is clear that unless ENGOs using misinformation and deceit are brought to account, Australia's primary resource use industries will be required to overcome unwarranted and ever greater hurdles to survive, which is hardly in the national interest. The current state of Tasmania stands as a salutory lesson as to what this can look like.