Unions split over Tasmanian forests
Reporter: Annie Guest
ELEANOR HALL: Well in Tasmania, the forestry workers and their union certainly gave John Howard a rousing reception yesterday when he promised to preserve their jobs.
Not only has the CFMEU’s national division today criticised its Tasmanian arm but now the Electrical and Plumbing Union is accusing the forestry union in the island state of mishandling Tasmania’s forests. And this union is calling for the protection of what it calls the jewel in Australia’s environmental crown.
Meanwhile, the Tasmanian Labor Premier is backing John Howard’s forest policy over that proposed by his Federal Labor colleagues
As Annie Guest reports from Hobart.
ANNIE GUEST: Mark Latham’s promise to protect up to 240,000 [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] hectares of forest and provide an $800 million restructuring package, and John Howard’s plan to conserve 170,000 hectares, plus provide $50 million, surprised and confused callers to ABC Local Radio in Hobart this morning.
CALLER 1: I’m worrying about the future of the whole of Australia. Not only Tasmania. It’s the free trade agreement, that’s been signed away. John Howard’s claim in saving the jobs here in Tasmania, but why did he let the Ugg boot factory go in for [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] the fight when America is trying to take their name and selling their cheap boots.
CALLER 2: Geez, on Saturday you don’t know who to vote for ?Liberal or Labor. I said to someone the other day. I said god, you don’t know who to vote for in this place. I think I’ll vote for Mr Dick Adams.
CALLER 3: You can just know that I’m for saving trees. Those timber workers are nothing but rednecks. They are not true Labor voters because they only supporting the fat cats.
CALLER 4: They’ve got some strange bedfellows here haven’t they now? No wonder these people wandered because it just seems to be a one sided giveaway of all our massive old growth timber for some particular people.
ANNIE GUEST: The CFMEU is split over the Liberals policy, with the Tasmanian arm welcoming it, but the national Secretary John Maitland, saying it can’t be trusted.
JOHN MAITLAND: I felt both angry and sad ?I mean it’s a great con job that he’s delivering on workers in Tasmania.
ANNIE GUEST: And the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union says Tasmanian forestry union delegates have mishandled the issue.
Spokesman Len Cooper says they should support protection of what he calls the jewel in Australia’s environmental crown.
LEN COOPER: Howard didn’t want to protect 40 thousand Telstra jobs. He considered that was good public policy. This is good public policy of Latham’s, to protect the jewel of the forests in Australia.
ANNIE GUEST: But the timber workers don’t trust the package?
LEN COOPER: Well the timber workers say that they’re going to lose their jobs and this is the problem I think with the timber workers officials, of being in my view, not tackling [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] this position as they should. They should basically have been prepared to sit down with the new Latham government over 12 months, and see how to use the 800 million dollars to help their members and save the forests at the same time.
ANNIE GUEST: But, the CFMEU’s Tasmanian secretary, Scott McLean stands by his position that the Liberals package is better for workers.
SCOTT MCLEAN: The CFMEU tradition is un*****ocal and that is that we will stay with the RFA. Now both parties are advocating something that is different to the RFA’s.
ANNIE GUEST: What you did tell workers yesterday was that the Liberal party is a better package for them [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] than that offered by the Labor Party?
SCOTT MCLEAN: It has lesser effects by our analysis of it.
ANNIE GUEST: How damaging is it in the union movement to have various messages coming from different unions, countering each other?
SCOTT MCLAEN: Other unions and other organisations are entitled to say those things, because that is part of what we do. There are a number of issues that people need to consider before they cast their vote on Saturday.
ANNIE GUEST: Meanwhile, the Tasmanian Government shares green groups scepticism about how much land John Howard’s package will protect that wasn’t already unloggable.
But the Minister for Resources, Bryan Green says the policy provides greater protection of the state and federal forestry agreement that was designed to give resource security to the industry.
BRYAN GREEN: Well in [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] terms of the regional forest agreement, you know, the regional forest agreement is for all intents and purposes as it was under the proposal that’s been put forward by John Howard. And we’ve always said that the regional forest agreement is the blueprint for Tasmania’s forests.
[عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا]