RESOURCES Minister David Llewellyn was forced to defend his handling of potential Tasmanian woodchip sales yesterday as a row erupted over which political party would best protect forestry jobs.
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Mr Llewellyn said at a hastily called press conference that he had believed that a sale was imminent when he announced earlier this month that an agreement had been reached with Asian markets to take 800,000 tonnes of Tasmanian woodchips.
The news was welcomed at the time by an industry rocked by the shutdown of two Gunns woodchip mills because of a lack of demand from the company's traditional Japanese markets.
Opposition Leader Will Hodgman yesterday used the announcement of the Liberals' forestry policy to urge Gunns to make every effort to secure financial closure on its proposed Tamar Valley pulp mill.
In a plan that mirrored Labor's released the day before, Mr Hodgman said that the Liberals' plan included $1.2 million for immediate short-term assistance to forest contractors out of work as a result of the downturn in woodchip sales.
It is understood that Labor brought forward its Tuesday announcement of an extra $1.2 million assistance for forest contractors struggling to meet equipment payments to beat the Liberals' forestry policy release.
Mr Llewellyn conceded yesterday that there had never been a firm market for the specified 800,000 tonnes of woodchips.
He said that the amount had been settled upon originally by the Government and the companies as the tonnage that was available to sell.
"It was then for Gunns to make a commercial deal and finalise that," he said.
In fact Gunns representatives were back in Japan this week trying to close negotiations on woodchip sales, Mr Llewellyn said.
He said that sales had proved difficult to secure in recent times because of "sabotage of our markets by extreme green elements that had been spreading misinformation around Japan".
But he said that lack of sales had also been due to the high price of the Australian dollar and the global financial crisis.
The Liberals had agreed yesterday to make available immediately the extra $1.2 million as well as the previously announced $600,000 for forest contractors while the Government was in caretaker mode, Mr Llewellyn said.