By Dave Wright
SYDNEY — After considerable public debate and heated lobbying from industry, unions and environment groups, the Carr Labor government has announced its interim forest and wilderness package.
Carr says this package makes his government "the greenest ever". The main points include: the creation of 10 new national parks through setting aside 12 newly created wilderness areas totalling 150,000 hectares; a temporary logging moratorium on a further 671,000 hectares of state forest; conversion of some privately owned land into wilderness through a $5 million Milo Dunphy Wilderness Fund; new "community boards of management" to monitor logging in sensitive areas; and a $120 million forest industry restructuring package.
The ALP government has thus backed down on a promise made before the last state election not to guarantee resource security until the final forest protection boundaries are drawn up — in two to three years.
The resource security agreements give logging companies guaranteed access to 50% of their 1995-96 timber allocations. The government claims that this quota reduction will be achieved across the state in two to three years. It also allows companies to renew these licences for a further five years.
Felicity Wade, NSW campaign coordinator for the Wilderness Society, told Green Left Weekly that the wilderness component of the package was very good, but "the forest decision is more problematic. While 150,000 hectares are set aside for new wilderness areas, this sits beside logging companies' resource security for 10 years. We need to continue the fight to save the areas in the moratorium, all of which are important forest areas.
"The other problem is that the package doesn't take up woodchipping. Already we've been advised that Boral has applied for a licence to take 830,000 tonnes of woodchips out of NSW next year, compared with 375,000 this year."
In the weeks before the forest decision, groups such as the National Association of Forest Industries and the forestry division of the CFMEU conducted a concerted advertising campaign pitting jobs against forest protection.
An ad in the Sydney Morning Herald authorised by Gavin Hillier from the CFMEU was titled "No surrender to Greens' gang of four". This was an attack on the four NSW members of parliament who threatened to block the legislation: Richard Jones, independent; Ian Cohen, Greens; Elisabeth Kirkby, Democrats; and Alan Corbett, independent.
However, the Carr government has clearly failed to address forest workers' concerns about job losses, which will severely affect rural communities. Rather than creating jobs through expanding infrastructure, transport or development of environmentally sustainable industries, the package gives $120 million for industry restructuring, much of which will go to big business handouts or pay-outs to retrenched workers.
Unfortunately, the Total Environment Centre fed into the divisive nature of the debate with a press release titled "Union extremists make grab for forests". In it, Jeff Angel, director of the TEC, said, "The government and the broader union movement should reject the radical agenda of the CFMEU, whose members were also involved in the Canberra Parliament House riot". It appears Angel did not realise that forest activists were also at Parliament House protesting against the Howard government.
To defeat the anti-forest policies of both the state and federal governments, broader trade union support is essential. This won't be won through tarring forest workers as union extremists, radicals or rioters.
The Carr package does not guarantee further protection for the 671,000 hectares of state forest in the moratorium. Logging companies and the forestry division of the CFMEU will continue to campaign to have these areas opened up to logging. This is where the next vital phase of the battle will take place to preserve and protect valuable forest areas in NSW.