The Wedge ... and the Fifth Estate

In a fascinating postscript to John Howard's old growth forestry wedge, Tasmanian Forestry Minister Bryan Green revealed that the total area identified for reservation by the Prime Minister does not actually correspond to any lines on any maps.

In his rush to deliver the pre-election wedge Howard promised to reserve 130,000 odd hectares of public old growth forest, but it now emerges he has no idea where any of these hectares are actually located.

The Forestry Tasmania figures that were obviously the basis of his policy do not correspond to any on-ground areas and therefore the State-Federal identification process, which started this week, will seemingly have free reign when it comes to allocating areas to be reserved.

Strangely this situation gives the Howard Government, via Environment Minister Ian Campbell, a chance to resolve the division of Tasmania by reserving some or most of the high conservation value areas already identified by the Tasmanian community via Tasmania Together.

What better way to achieve a good environmental outcome, slap Bob Brown in the face, shaft the Tasmanian Labor Government, turn the federal back on the CFMEU and gain kudos from the majority of Australians?

Pigs might fly too, but it will be interesting to see how the identification process is translated into on-ground reservation.

My personal feeling is that we'll get the cop-out, something like "all wedge tailed eagle nests and old growth riparian vegetation areas are now reserved" without boundaries ever being identified. In other words, business as usual. We'll see.

A recent interview with the head of Private Forests Tasmania has also confirmed fears that Howard's plan to reserve an extra 43,000 hectares of private forests is unlikely to succeed.

During an interview on ABC's Country Hour (7ZR, 2/11), Ian Dickenson revealed that the pool of funds to be paid out to landowners needs to be increased by tens of millions of dollars in order to compete with the value of the timber that is to be reserved. Without the extra funding the current target set under the RFA will not be met, let alone the extra 43,000 hectares.

While the forest industry likes to trumpet the primacy of the RFA, it seems the conservation aspects which contribute to the RFA's "balance" are not being addressed. Congratulations to the Country Hour team for chasing down the facts surrounding this issue - the (2/11) show was a ripper.

and,

The 5th Estate
In recent weeks, the Tasmanian media seems to have decided that the forest industry's preferred term for reserved land or forests, "locked up," is now an acceptable descriptive.

Those partaking in this industry snuff might like to consider Tasmanian forest scientist Jamie Kirkpatrick's view about the term.

Professor Kirkpatrick revealed on 7ZR a few weeks back that he does not agree with describing reserved land as "locked up" because the only time Tasmanian forests are truly locked away from the public is when Forestry Tasmania locks gates on access roads. Professor Kirkpatrick's preferred descriptive is "freed up".

While the use of the emotive "freed up" would balance the use of the equally emotive "locked up", I think the term "reserved" has little if any emotive attachment and is therefore far more appropriate.

As iconoclast Pilger noted,
Scoop of the Century JOHN PILGER... Do not miss
And, Don't Miss ...
JOHN PILGER... in OxfordStudent
"many journalists ... become absorbed into a propaganda apparatus without consciously realising their true role"; the 4th estate needs to be very careful about this sort of thing.

tasmaniantimes.com social and political commentator Jason Lovell is a former student of Herr, Kirkpatrick and Felmingham. He also works as a contractor to the Tasmanian Government and several Government Business Enterprises and lives on 20 acres in the Derwent Valley.

RAPID RESPONSE EMAIL: What do you think?
If you bounce, tuffinlindsay@hotmail.com

Thursday, November 4, 2004

RETURN TO CONTENTS