Extracts from Premier David Bartlett’s appointments diary, which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that in his first three months as Premier his only meetings on forests policy were with government agencies, companies and industry lobby groups which championed the logging of old-growth forests.

At his inaugural press conference as Premier in May 2008, David Bartlett pledged that he would “take a deeply considered approach based on data, information and knowledge” to the possibility of old-growth forests being valued as carbon offsets. The following day, Bartlett told Matthew Denholm from The Australian that the “parameters” of the timber industry had changed over the preceding decade and that “I expect by the end of the time I am Premier they will have changed again”. However, he hastened to add that “any future changes would be made in consultation with stakeholders.”

Needless to say, the timber industry funded group, Timber Communities Australia (TCA), was alarmed. “The parameters have been redone that many times that there is not really any scope left to redo those parameters any more,” Barry Chipman stated.

Who did Bartlett consult on forests policy in his first three months as Premier?

Extracts from David Bartlett’s appointments diary, which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that in his first three months as Premier his only meetings on forests policy were with government agencies, companies and industry lobby groups which championed the logging of old-growth forests. Requests for meetings from environment groups were rejected.

Three days after becoming Premier, Bartlett met with Bob Rutherford, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources, who has carriage of forests policy.

The extract of Bartlett’s appointments dairy notes that the meeting was for a briefing on the forthcoming report from the World Heritage Committee on the potential impact of forestry operations on areas environmentalists wanted added to the Western Tasmania World Heritage Area. The committee’s draft report recommended only minor additions, largely of areas that had already been set aside as National Parks in the 1999 Regional Forest Agreement but which have not been formally added to the World Heritage Area.

Read the rest at The Tasmanian Times.