The Greens have hit out at a new pro-forestry parliamentary group they say is "a sad indictment on both the Liberal and Labor parties".
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Last Wednesday, a letter was sent to all members of the Tasmanian Parliament, inviting them to join a newly formed group: the Parliamentary Friends of Forestry.
Under the Tasmanian Forest Products Association's letterhead, the message was written by Resources Minister Guy Barnett and co-signed by Opposition resources spokesman Shane Broad. The pair are the group's co-convenors.
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"Tasmania's forest industry is the ultimate renewable, it replaces for the future according to a long-term plan," Mr Barnett wrote. "It helps tackle climate change by taking carbon dioxide out of the air and storing it (a fact acknowledged by the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]); and it supports more than 5700 direct and indirect jobs in our state."
"Parliamentary Friends of Forestry is intended to be a non-partisan, informal grouping of Members of Parliament who have an interest in supporting and promoting Tasmania's renewable forestry industry, those who work in it, and the regional communities that [rely] upon it."
Amid growing conflict between the forest industry and Tasmania's conservation movement, Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said she and Franklin MHA Rosalie Woodruff wouldn't be accepting the invitation.
"On forest destruction, biodiversity and carbon loss, and bushfire risk, [the Liberal and Labor parties are] on a unity ticket," she said.
"They did this at the federal level with the Parliamentary Friends of Coal [Exports].
"Maybe they should cut the pretence and streamline their alliance at both levels of government, and call themselves the Parliamentary Friends of the War on Nature?
"The Greens won't be joining Dr Broad and Mr Barnett at the table with logging industry mendicants and science deniers."
The new group is expected to soon hold its first event now that State Parliament has resumed.
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