The council accused the Greens of being out of touch with the needs of the tourism industry, while the opposition accused the Greens of being anti-everything.

The controversy flared again at the weekend after it was revealed in The Examiner that the Greens had attacked the proposal even though a special report on their website included the project glowingly as an eco-tourism example of the benefits flowing from the forestry inter-governmental agreement.

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown weighed in yesterday, saying the money dedicated to the project could be better spent elsewhere.

Saying he had just finished a summer of Tasmanian bushwalking, Senator Brown said: ''I have always vociferously opposed the Three Capes walk proposal from the Tasmanian and federal governments.

``Tasmania's walking tracks are disgracefully under-funded and the Commonwealth should be putting $30 million in there for a much better economic return.''

Tourism Industry Council head Luke Martin said the ``apparent hypocrisy'' of the Greens, in attacking their own report, went to the heart of a broader frustration the tourism industry had with the Greens.

``When it suits them they are happy to identify with tourism and say it is the panacea of all Tasmania's economic problems, but, when it comes to actual support for the industry, they criticise and campaign against the very projects that are going to allow our industry to grow,'' Mr Martin said.

Opposition environment spokesman Matthew Groom said the Three Capes track would not only help showcase Tasmania's world-class national parks, it would also create much-needed jobs and add to our high quality tourism assets.

``Tasmania needs to seize these opportunities, not destroy them for the sake of a warped ideological agenda, as the Greens would have us do,'' Mr Groom said.