Mr Whitely questions the Minister for Environment and Heritage regarding support for logging in non-old-growth areas of national parks, referencing a submission by the member for Vasse. The Minister strongly opposes the idea and criticises the opposition's stance.

AnsweredQoN 52Legislative Assembly
Asked
23 May 2001
Member
Portfolio
Environment and Heritage

QuestionView source ↗

NON-OLD-GROWTH FORESTS, SUPPORTABLE LOGGING
I refer to the submission dated 13 January 1999 made by the member for Vasse to Hon Wilson Tuckey, MP, the federal Minister for Forestry and Conservation, and ask - (1) Is the minister aware of point 8 of the member’s submission which states that reducing the areas of non-old-growth forests within existing national parks to allow logging is supportable, provided no significant environmental values are affected. (2) Does the minister support this view? Dr EDWARDS

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the member for the question. (1)-(2) No, I do not support this view. I was interested to learn that the member for Vasse, who is now the opposition environment spokesperson, wrote to Wilson Tuckey in 1999 suggesting that parts of national parks be logged. Obviously, Wilson Tuckey has a bit of a delay in receiving information and processing it because he did not endorse the notion until April 2001. The Government does not support that notion. The community has overwhelmingly demanded that we protect old-growth forests. We are doing that by protecting them in national parks and nature reserves. I ask the Opposition whether it still stands by its view that the Government should go into national parks and take out logs; that is an atrocious notion. The Opposition must come clean and tell us what it is up to, what is its influence over Wilson Tuckey and why it has such a long time lag.
(1) Is the minister aware of point 8 of the member’s submission which states that reducing the areas of non-old-growth forests within existing national parks to allow logging is supportable, provided no significant environmental values are affected. (2) Does the minister support this view? Dr EDWARDS replied: I thank the member for the question. (1)-(2) No, I do not support this view. I was interested to learn that the member for Vasse, who is now the opposition environment spokesperson, wrote to Wilson Tuckey in 1999 suggesting that parts of national parks be logged. Obviously, Wilson Tuckey has a bit of a delay in receiving information and processing it because he did not endorse the notion until April 2001. The Government does not support that notion. The community has overwhelmingly demanded that we protect old-growth forests. We are doing that by protecting them in national parks and nature reserves. I ask the Opposition whether it still stands by its view that the Government should go into national parks and take out logs; that is an atrocious notion. The Opposition must come clean and tell us what it is up to, what is its influence over Wilson Tuckey and why it has such a long time lag.
(2) Does the minister support this view? Dr EDWARDS replied: I thank the member for the question. (1)-(2) No, I do not support this view. I was interested to learn that the member for Vasse, who is now the opposition environment spokesperson, wrote to Wilson Tuckey in 1999 suggesting that parts of national parks be logged. Obviously, Wilson Tuckey has a bit of a delay in receiving information and processing it because he did not endorse the notion until April 2001. The Government does not support that notion. The community has overwhelmingly demanded that we protect old-growth forests. We are doing that by protecting them in national parks and nature reserves. I ask the Opposition whether it still stands by its view that the Government should go into national parks and take out logs; that is an atrocious notion. The Opposition must come clean and tell us what it is up to, what is its influence over Wilson Tuckey and why it has such a long time lag.
Dr EDWARDS replied: I thank the member for the question. (1)-(2) No, I do not support this view. I was interested to learn that the member for Vasse, who is now the opposition environment spokesperson, wrote to Wilson Tuckey in 1999 suggesting that parts of national parks be logged. Obviously, Wilson Tuckey has a bit of a delay in receiving information and processing it because he did not endorse the notion until April 2001. The Government does not support that notion. The community has overwhelmingly demanded that we protect old-growth forests. We are doing that by protecting them in national parks and nature reserves. I ask the Opposition whether it still stands by its view that the Government should go into national parks and take out logs; that is an atrocious notion. The Opposition must come clean and tell us what it is up to, what is its influence over Wilson Tuckey and why it has such a long time lag.
I thank the member for the question. (1)-(2) No, I do not support this view. I was interested to learn that the member for Vasse, who is now the opposition environment spokesperson, wrote to Wilson Tuckey in 1999 suggesting that parts of national parks be logged. Obviously, Wilson Tuckey has a bit of a delay in receiving information and processing it because he did not endorse the notion until April 2001. The Government does not support that notion. The community has overwhelmingly demanded that we protect old-growth forests. We are doing that by protecting them in national parks and nature reserves. I ask the Opposition whether it still stands by its view that the Government should go into national parks and take out logs; that is an atrocious notion. The Opposition must come clean and tell us what it is up to, what is its influence over Wilson Tuckey and why it has such a long time lag.
(1)-(2) No, I do not support this view. I was interested to learn that the member for Vasse, who is now the opposition environment spokesperson, wrote to Wilson Tuckey in 1999 suggesting that parts of national parks be logged. Obviously, Wilson Tuckey has a bit of a delay in receiving information and processing it because he did not endorse the notion until April 2001. The Government does not support that notion. The community has overwhelmingly demanded that we protect old-growth forests. We are doing that by protecting them in national parks and nature reserves. I ask the Opposition whether it still stands by its view that the Government should go into national parks and take out logs; that is an atrocious notion. The Opposition must come clean and tell us what it is up to, what is its influence over Wilson Tuckey and why it has such a long time lag.

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