Guy Barnett,Minister for Resources
The Hodgman majority Liberal Government has a mandate to drive business investment and create real jobs for Tasmanians, including rebuilding the forestry industry and supporting the 5,700+ people it employs.
Our Strategic Growth Plan for Tasmania's forests, fine timber and wood fibre industry provides a clear pathway to assist industry to grow, supporting forestry jobs.
We are investing $500,000 to help build a stronger industry, by providing forestry contractors with skills and access to professional advice to take their businesses to the next level.
Delivered through Rural Business Tasmania, the Forestry Contractor Resilience program will provide contractors the opportunity to work with specialists on business planning and coaching, and identify future opportunities to diversify and build business stability and resilience.
Grants of up to $15,000 will then be made available to eligible businesses to implement identified business opportunities and improvements.
We are listening to industry and working with businesses to grab future value-adding opportunities and continue the recovery from the Labor/Green wrecking ball approach that locked up our valuable timber resources and cost two out of every three jobs in the industry.
However, everything that we have achieved is under threat from Labor and the Greens.
On the weekend Labor said they would protect jobs, they said they would build industry, they said they wouldn't work with the Greens again, but it took less than three days to break these promises.
Instead of backing yesterday's Parliamentary motion of support for the forest industry, Rebecca White and her Labor colleagues joined forces with the Greens to vote together for a return to the job-destroying lock-ups of their infamous anti-forestry deal.
Actions speak louder than words and Labor's actions show they cannot be trusted.
Unlike Labor, the Hodgman majority Liberal Government will always back our forestry industry to the hilt and there is no doubt our forest industry is growing in strength and confidence thanks to our job-creating policies.
Forestry contractors can pre-register their interest with Rural Business Tasmania by calling 1300 88 3276.
