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Unions, forestry groups and environmentalists have pocketed a share of more than $2.23 million in taxpayer dollars to come to an agreement for peace in Tasmania's forests.
The price to taxpayers for the Tasmanian Forestry Intergovernmental Agreement was revealed exclusively to The Sunday Examiner yesterday.
The agreement, which will lock away significant swathes of Tasmanian forest from harvesting while providing direction on which areas can continue to be logged, is due to be delivered to the state government tomorrow.
The $2.23 million figure came from an itemised list released last week by Environment Minister Stephen Conroy in response to a Senate question by Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz.
Senator Abetz had asked Senator Conroy in June to detail how Professor Jonathan West had been paid to work on the $276 million Tasmanian Forest Intergovernmental Agreement.
He also asked how much the nine forestry statement of principles signatories, who produced a guide to the agreement, had been paid for their work.
Senator Conroy revealed a report evaluating the state's native forest conservation values and industry supply needs cost more than $2 million to produce.
A six-member Independent Verification Group tasked with compiling the 2500-page report received $432,540 for nine months' work.
The group's head, Professor West, was paid $130,000, and the remaining $302,540 split between the group's five other expert members.
Another 27 expert groups and individuals received a share of $1.46 million, paid to them to produce data and modelling, sub-reports for the groups' analysis, and give technical support for industry and environment representatives.
The nine groups involved in establishing a statement of principles to guide the Tasmanian Forestry Intergovernmental Agreement were paid $240,000 in total over five months.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union received $80,000 while the eight other groups received $20,000 each.
These groups included: Timber Communities Australia, the National Association of Forest Industries, the Australian Forest Contractors Association, the Tasmanian Forest Contractors Association, the Tasmanian Country Sawmillers Federation, Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, the Australian Conservation Foundation, and Environment Tasmania.
The negotiations that have followed the release of the forestry statement of principles and the Independent Verification Group's report have cost $95,000.
Last June, Timber Communities Australia, the CFMEU, and the Australian Conservation Foundation received $20,000 to support their interstate representatives' involvement in the negotiations in Tasmania.
The seven other negotiating parties were paid $5000 to fund their Tasmanian representatives' involvement.
Opposition forestry spokesman Peter Gutwein said Tasmanians would be shocked by these figures.
``It seems the only people who have benefited from this disastrous round table process are Jonathan West, the CFMEU, and the various other unelected groups negotiating away our future,'' he said.