Forestry

Where we stand

One Nation Tasmania believes forestry is a strategic industry, not an industry Tasmania should apologise for. Timber is a renewable natural resource that supports regional communities, construction, manufacturing and Australia's ability to supply more of its own essential materials. Tasmania should be growing timber, processing timber and making more timber products here at home.

We reject the false choice between protecting Tasmania's environment and maintaining a strong forestry industry. Protect what should be protected. Manage what should be managed. Harvest what can be sustainably harvested. Regenerate what we use. Old-growth forests, formally reserved areas, waterways and important wildlife habitat deserve proper protection, while sustainably managed production forests should remain available for productive use.

We back both plantation forestry and sustainable native forestry. Decisions about forest management should be driven by evidence, sustainable yield, regeneration and practical environmental stewardship, not ideological campaigns designed to shut the industry down. Forestry workers, contractors, growers and manufacturers need stable rules that allow them to invest, employ people and plan decades ahead.

The issues

Forestry has helped build regional Tasmania for generations, but the industry has spent decades being treated as a political bargaining chip. Changing rules, shrinking access to productive forests and constant uncertainty have made it harder for contractors, sawmills and manufacturers to invest, employ people and plan for the future.

This is not a fringe industry. Tasmania's forest and wood products sector contributed more than $1 billion to the state economy in 2020–21, according to the Tasmanian Forestry Hub, and Tasmania produces around one-fifth of Australia's logs. Yet Tasmania's commercial plantation estate has also declined over the past decade, while Australia remains heavily reliant on imported timber and wood products.

The result is perverse: Tasmania has the forests, workers and expertise to produce more of its own timber, but political uncertainty and lost processing capacity mean too much opportunity leaves with the resource. Regional communities lose jobs, Tasmania loses manufacturing, and Australia becomes more dependent on timber produced somewhere else.

Our priorities

1. Defend sustainable native and plantation forestry. Give Tasmania's forestry industry the long-term certainty to operate, invest and grow, while resisting further unnecessary removal of sustainably managed production forests from productive use.
2. Grow Tasmania's future timber supply. Strengthen the long-term productive forest estate and encourage appropriate plantation and private forestry investment so future generations have secure access to Australian-grown timber.
3. Process and manufacture more timber in Tasmania. Build a stronger domestic timber industry that turns more Tasmanian logs into construction timber, engineered wood, furniture and other higher-value products before they leave the state.
4. Put Tasmanian timber to work in Tasmania. Strengthen demand for locally grown and manufactured timber, including through public procurement, construction and infrastructure, while improving transparency about where imported timber comes from.
5. Actively manage forests and reduce bushfire risk. Support practical forest management including regeneration, access maintenance, thinning, weed and pest control, fuel management and effective coordination for fire prevention and response.
6. Protect forests and wildlife through practical stewardship. Maintain strong protection for old-growth forests, waterways, important habitat and threatened species while ensuring conservation measures are evidence-based, targeted and compatible with sustainable forestry.
7. Back the workers and communities that keep forestry running. Strengthen forestry skills, apprenticeships, workforce development, regional infrastructure and freight connections so contractors, sawmills, manufacturers and forestry communities have a future in Tasmania.

What this means for Tasmanians

For forestry workers and contractors: greater confidence that there will still be an industry, a resource and a job to build a future around.

For regional communities: more opportunity to keep sawmilling, manufacturing, apprenticeships and skilled jobs in the towns that produce Tasmania's timber.

For private growers and landowners: greater certainty that responsibly managed forests remain a legitimate and valuable productive use of land.

For builders and homebuyers: a stronger domestic timber supply and less reliance on expensive or uncertain overseas supply chains.

For future generations: healthy and productive forests that are actively managed, regenerated after harvest and capable of supporting both environmental values and Tasmanian livelihoods.

Tasmania should grow it here, make it here and keep the jobs here.

What comes next

This baseline policy sets out where One Nation Tasmania stands on forestry and the priorities that will guide our detailed policy work.

We will develop specific commitments through consultation with forestry workers, contractors, sawmills, manufacturers, private growers, landowners, regional communities, fire and land-management experts and conservation specialists. Further forestry policy releases will follow as that work progresses.

If you work in forestry, depend on the industry, manage forests or have practical experience of what Tasmania should be doing better, we want to hear from you.