Tassie's forests: deal or no deal?

Presumably this means that the likely socio-economic impact of the new policy on bushfire management has yet to be seriously considered. Already, at the start of what promises to be a long hot summer, early bushfires are exposing gaps created by lost expertise and reduced suppression capability under the now considerably diluted forest management regime. Enshrining this in a new forest policy which did not meaningfully consider its implications before being legislated may well create opportunities for litigation if severe bushfires subsequently impact on life and property.

If the TFA process becomes a template for future public policy determinations, as seems a strong possibility in Tasmania's Tarkine mining dispute, one wonders where it will ultimately lead. Perhaps, health policy can be determined by patient and drug company representatives with medical professionals looking on from the sidelines. If that seems ridiculous, it is curious as to why allowing environmental activists to determine the extent of new national parks is not viewed in a similar vien.

Despite its obvious flaws, supporters of the TFA have noted that it deserves a chance because conventional government policy processes, such as the far more wide-ranging and comprehensive Regional Forest Agreement process, have always failed to deliver an enduring forest peace. This is true, but then no effort has ever been seriously directed towards making the primary antagonists of forest conflict (the ENGO activists) accountable for deceitful and unwarranted campaigns against reasonable and balanced resource use.

Unfortunately, the TFA largely continues this trend despite offering an opportunity to tie national park expansion to real advancements such as legally enforcable undertakings to stop ENGOs from trashing the reputations of Australian timber companies or the Australian Forestry Standard. This may well be problematic, particularly if extended beyond the signatory ENGOs to other antagonist groups such as Markets for Change, but without something of this nature there can be no confidence of any lasting peace.

The policies of ENGOs and the sentiments of their leaders and supporters suggest that, irrespective of the fate of the TFA legislation, there will never be peace in the forests until virtually all public forests are in reserves and timber production has been reduced to a cottage industry. If the legislation is passed, there is unlikely to be peace in the hearts and minds of most Tasmanians given the way the policy has been foistered upon the state, or at least until the decisions and political machinations which underlie the process become clear.