Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants more trees planted in Tassie

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison has announced a $12.5m forestry project during his visit to Tasmania’s North today.

TASMANIA’S North has been selected as one of nine sites around Australia to become forestry hubs as the Federal Government pushes to have another one billion trees planted by 2030 to meet demand for timber.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in Somerset this morning, said $12.5 million in seed funding had been put up to get the tree planting under way and farmers would be approached to see if they wanted to be part of the new focus on forestry.

Mr Morrison said the pilot hubs had been selected because they were already forestry areas and had the infrastructure and workforce to back industry growth.

The National State of the Forest report shows Australia has 2 million hectares under plantation but the resource was shrinking and more trees need to go in to meet demand for forest products.

“It is about getting the right places, the right trees and the right scale,” Tasmanian Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck said.

(L-R) Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Senator Richard Colbeck and Braddon candidate Gavin Pearce at the Forico Nursery at Somerset, North West Tasmania. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

He said restrictions on growing trees on agricultural land would be reviewed.

Asked if Tasmania’s prime food growing land would be lost to plantations under the scheme, Senator Colbeck said there would not be a return to broad scale Managed Investment Scheme plantations.

At one point MIS investors owned over 722,000ha (35%) of Australia’s plantations and large swathes of prime agricultural land were put under trees.

“We are not going back to the days of MIS,” Senator Colbeck said.

“I am sure creative ways can be found where farmers plant wind breaks by growing trees and also create a new revenue stream.”

The move has already been backed by the National Farmers Federation.

Tasmanian Resources Minister Sarah Courtney said forestry was already an important part of the state’s economy and the North had a competitive advantage with access to ports, labour and land to grow more trees.

Senator Colbeck said the planting of one billion extra trees would also remove 18 million tonnes of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, per year, by 2030.

“This is an exciting day for Tasmania’s forest industry,” Mr Morrison said.

“Growing one billion new trees is a huge task. We need the infrastructure, labour and the region selected to achieve that target. We will talk to other forest communities around Australia to identify more sites.”