Media Release

Peter Gutwein MP
Shadow Minister for Forestry

Friday 2nd September, 2011

Forestry CRC axing throws doubts over IGA

News that the Federal Government has failed to renew the funding of the Forestry Cooperative Research Centre throws into question the whole rationale surrounding the forestry IGA and is yet another cruel blow to the forest industry.

Clause 40c) of the Intergovernmental Agreement on Forestry specifically requires the focus on “The potential for increased value-adding and greater use of plantation timber by the forestry industry”.

Who is going to undertake this research now? The extension to the CRC would have employed 29 FTE’s and these positions are now all in doubt.

The news is also yet further confirmation of Labor and the Greens’ contempt for the forest industry, who have already moved to cut the industry in half.

On the one hand Labor and the Greens are telling us that the industry needs to change and adapt, yet at the same time they are overseeing the closure of the premier forestry research organisation.

The Forestry CRC is explicitly identified in the Liberal’s 13-point plan for forestry as being important to the future of our forest industry, and rightly so, given its role in research and innovation in the industry.

The Federal Government must urgently reconsider its decision to fund the CRC.