Media Release

Peter Gutwein MP
Shadow Minister for Forestry

Tuesday 17th January, 2012

Greens challenged to put up, or shut up on forest deal

The Greens should put up, or shut up, on forestry.

If the disastrous forest deal is as bad for conservation outcomes as the Greens claim, they should vote with us in the Parliament to defeat it.

And if they have been betrayed as badly as they claim they have been by Labor, then they should quit their Cabinet posts.

Of course they won’t do either, because the fact is the disastrous forest deal, which cuts our forest industry in half and now means 58 percent of our productive native forests are locked up, is a massive win for the Greens.

Like they have every time in the past, the Greens will take the 428,000 hectares of forest they’ve been gifted in Labor’s desperate attempt to appease them, and they’ll keep on demanding even more.

The disastrous forest deal was meant to deliver peace. It has comprehensively failed, and should be torn up.