Kate Carnell, NAFI executive director says that an up-to-date economic assessment of the industry had concluded that a reversal of the 1997 policy on old-growth forests, which sees 86 per cent of the forests protected, would eliminate 1184 jobs.

“Some in the industry think it will be even higher – maybe 4000 jobs,” she says.

“Ending all old-growth harvesting would cause Tasmania’s unemployment rate to skyrocket. The economic analysis also concludes that while ending old-growth logging would only cut 19 per cent of the state’s woodchip output, it would cut 40 per cent of specialty timbers and 64 per cent of the highest value large sawlogs.”

Carnell says this is the wrong policy even for environmentalists, as it attacks the heart of the high-quality end of the industry, not the woodchip production sector. She says the entire industry around Australia, including 130,000 workers in regional areas, were following this aspect of the election campaign closely.

“The 130,000 workers in the forest and wood products industries expect and believe that the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader will stick to their repeated commitments to the Regional Forest Agreements and to their clear promises on job protection,” says Carnell.

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