We’ve been inundated with messages from our supporters regarding a response they received to emails, or phone calls to the Premier Peter Gutweins' office to express their concerns at the logging of our native forests. For months there has been silence from the Premier's office refusing to respond to correspondence. Then last week hundreds of people received a carbon copy letter - not from the Premier, who is the Minister for climate change and Tourism - but from the Minister for Forestry Guy Barnett. Providing the logging industry talking points and a direct link to the STT website, on how logging is good for carbon storage, climate change and that the IPCC supports the kind of native forest logging taking place in Tasmania. Which frankly is B.S.!.
The IPCC related paragraph in the Minister's Letter stated:
‘The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is the United Nations’ body for assessing the science related to climate change, has acknowledged that sustainable forest management is part of the climate change solution. One of the many benefits of Tasmania’s sustainable forest industry is providing climate change mitigation benefits, such as storing carbon in finished wood products.’
The Premier has palmed off his portfolio responsibilities, and his obligations to communicate with his constituents and answer very important questions about Tasmania’s ongoing failure to protect our most important land based carbon stores, biodiversity arks and the very places we are telling tourists to come and experience. To answer some of the mistruths being pedalled by the Tasmanian Government, its logging agency Sustainable Timber Tasmania and the Forestry Minister, we created a Myth Busting blog, and of course have our FAQ page on the website.
We encourage you to get back in touch with the Premier via his email address ( peter.gutwein@parliament.tas.gov.au ) using our Myth Busting points, or our FAQ page, to again drive home the need for Tasmania to protect our native forests for climate action, biodiversity, our nature-based tourism sector, and communities.