Mr Barnett announced on Thursday that he intended to table the Forestry (Unlocking Production Forests) Bill when Parliament resumes next week.

He said if the bill was approved, it would open up 356,000 hectares of so-called Future Potential Production Forest Land to logging from July 1, 2018.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said she believed the government was willing to start a forestry war over the new plan.

“With their rabidly anti-conservation rhetoric and policy platform, the Liberals have laid the groundwork for the next election to be a referendum on the environment,” Ms O’Connor said.

“The Liberals are prepared to sacrifice globally significant, carbon rich forests and divide the community for political gain.”

But Mr Barnett said the only people who wanted a forestry war were the Greens.

“What [the government] want to do is protect jobs and end the subsidies and that's what our plan is all about,” he said.

The plan would protect 700 jobs in the forest industry, which Mr Barnett said would be cut if further timber supply was not pursued.

Like Ms O’Connor, Opposition Leader Bryan Green said the Liberals wished to “reignite the forest wars”.

“It seems like [Mr Barnett’s] happy to go to war against the industry for bizarre reasons known only to himself,” Mr Green said.

“The Liberals might want to pick a fight and make forestry a big election issue but Labor just wants to see a stable, sustainable industry.”

Wilderness Society spokesperson Vica Bayley said the government was willing to start a “culture war” over the forestry debate.

“They clearly want to have a range of fights over land use,” Mr Bayley said.

When he announced the forestry plan on Thursday, Mr Barnett said he was willing to “fight tooth and nail” over the legislation, including “in the trenches”.