The Liberal government's decision to cancel State Parliament until next month has left Tasmania's forestry industry in limbo for at least a month.
A highly technical interpretation of delegations made under the Forest Practices Act has thrown the legality of logging in the state under a cloud and resulted in charges against anti-forestry protesters being dropped.
It's all very well for the Minister Guy Barnett to say retrospective legislation will be drafted "urgently" to fix the problem when State Parliament resumes.
But the chaos within this government has led to the cancellation of next week's sitting of the House of Assembly, meaning Parliament won't sit again until 3 May.
This is an urgent problem that needs to be fixed to give certainty to the industry, and putting it off for almost another month is not dealing with it urgently.
Instead, the Liberals have left the industry open to more uncertainty and a month's worth of pot shots from the Greens and the Bob Brown Foundation.
Given that Parliament has only sat for nine days this year, the cancellation of next week's sitting is completely unnecessary and has brought the working of government to a grinding halt.
Rather than fighting among themselves, the Liberals need to get their act together and get on with the job of governing Tasmania.
Shane Broad MP
Shadow Minister for Resources
