Timber companies win in Tas jobs plan

Questions have been raised about how Tasmania's forests peace deal money will be spent.

Rudd details Tas forest peace money

Tasmania's historic forests peace deal has unlocked $100 million in new projects over four years.

Tasmanian timber businesses are among the winners in the carve-up of $100 million to support the state's forests peace deal.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has detailed how the cash will be spent following the historic agreement between environmentalists and the logging industry.

The funding was put on the table by former PM Julia Gillard, who fast-tracked its roll-out from 10 years to just four years in May.

The Tasmanian Jobs and Growth Plan is intended to help restructure the Tasmanian economy after the downsizing of its logging sector.

Among the 31 recipients will be Malaysian-owned timber processor Ta Ann, which will pocket $7.5 million for a plywood mill.

More than 20 per cent of the money will go to timber-related firms.

Visiting Launceston, in the seat of Bass, Mr Rudd said the federal government had a responsibility to help Tasmania through its economic challenges, which include the highest unemployment rate in Australia.

"We've got to make an extra effort to make sure that the economy and jobs remain strong in this part of Australia," he told reporters.

But Greens leader Christine Milne said businesses such as Ta Ann should not be propped up and the prime minister needed to ensure forest protection earmarked in the agreement went ahead.

"Is Prime Minister Rudd abandoning hard fought agreements in order to breathe new life into the logging industry and to pretend that PM Gillard's (agreement) didn't exist?" Senator Milne said in a statement.

The federal opposition labelled the package another "pink batts" moment.

Coalition forestry spokesman Senator Richard Colbeck said 400 applications were rushed through so the announcement could be made just six days after the deadline.

"This is old school Kevin Rudd riding his chaos train across the country," Senator Colbeck said.

"This is the bloke that brought us pink batts."

Mr Rudd said the process had been "exhaustive".

"We have been very careful and very cautious about not making this announcement about the allocation until we have had all that nutted out," he said.

The opposition said the "pork barrelling" paled when compared with $700 million that could be earned by forestry each year, despite the parlous state of the industry before the peace negotiations.


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Source: AAP


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Timber companies win in Tas jobs plan | SBS News