Media Release

Peter Gutwein MP
Shadow Minister for Forestry

Tuesday 1st March, 2011

Major split between Labor & Greens over Statement of Principles

A major split has emerged between Labor and the Greens over the disastrous Statement of Principles.

On Friday, in a media statement strangely not on the Greens’ website (but published here (at bottom)), Nick McKim confirmed that he believed that a harvesting moratorium on 600,000 hectares of forest commences by the 15th March.

However, Resources Minister Bryan Green has now categorically disagreed with that.

Both Mr Green and Mr McKim were appointed by the former Premier to a three-person cabinet sub-committee to implement the Statement of Principles – but now it is clear that they fundamentally disagree with how to proceed.

The so-called round-table peace talks established by the former Premier shortly after the election in order to appease Mr McKim and the Greens are rapidly turning into a farce, with Ministers in open disagreement and the broader community that has been specifically excluded from this process beginning to revolt.

The only way to fix the situation is for the Government to dump the disastrous Statement of Principles and instead adopt our balanced, 13-point plan which specifically calls for community involvement and a triple bottom line assessment to assess the economic, social and environmental impacts of any proposed changes to the forestry sector.