Tasmania: Champagne tastes on a beer income

By Jan Davis 

Tasmanian Farmers & Graziers Association

First published in the Mercury
Also available at the TFGA web site


Photo sourced from [here] from an earlier article by Jan Davis


Everywhere you go you hear it. Our car, steel, manufacturing industries are uncompetitive and in decline. No local people are prepared to come onto farms and pick fruit and vegetables and do the hard yards. The housing market bubble is about to burst. The strong dollar is a nightmare for exporters and a wipe-out for inbound tourism and education industries.  Governments are focused on second order issues and money is being wasted on pork-barrelling.

Politicians know it but won’t talk about it. Public servants are either unwilling or unprepared to speak out; or when they do, their advice is ignored. The unions know, but their survival depends on a rapidly out-dating paradigm. Academics know it also, but often choose not to engage in real world debate. Businesses are generally too busy keeping their heads above water to focus on anything other than tomorrow.

The truth is that Australia is no longer the ‘lucky country’.
‘We’re doing better than most’ is only partially true. We have a massive natural resource base and a long history of managing it effectively to deliver economic outcomes. The mining boom has propped up our economy over recent years; and agriculture has played its part too. Without these advantages, we’d be where the rest of the world is now.

Even with this leg up, we’re struggling with a two speed economy where many dual income families have trouble paying for the basics of life.

The reason? In a world where everyone is competing for scarce resources, people in less fortunate countries will do whatever it takes to get out of poverty and to live in a safe environment. Yet we’ve taken our ‘lucky country’ status to heart and become complacent.  We have expectations of a lifestyle way beyond the nation’s capacity to continue to deliver: our wage costs make us uncompetitive; and we have a system of welfare and entitlements that are not supportable without diverting resources from infrastructure and production. The end result is we are spending more than we can afford.

‘Champagne tastes on a beer income’ is what my nanna would have said.

Whilst this is true across Australia, it is writ large in Tasmania. We have a small population base, and an even smaller industry base – and that is being lost in a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ scenario. We’ve become accustomed to having our enviable lifestyle funded by the hard work of other people in other states. And this has earned us the reputation of always having our hands out for yet another hand out.


Photo sourced from [here]
Tasmanians may have their heads in the sand about their economic reality -
 just like this unfortunate Tasmanian devil has been stuck in a bore hole

 We’re on notice about this – the economic boom states have made it clear they’re not keen on continuing to subsidise what the WA Premier calls ‘the mendicant state’. So we are kidding ourselves if we think that our lifestyle can be sustained without painful change.

If we’re honest, most of us understand that. The challenge is to do something about it before we hit the wall and have no chance to manage change. Individually, it is hard for us to make a difference; but as a community we can drive change.

If that’s going to happen, though, we need leadership that can develop strategies that will enable us to maintain our hard-won benefits; while still competing in a global marketplace.

That’s what the coming state election should be about. We all need to put aside petty political posturing and focus on developing a clear plan to help us navigate the challenges that are ahead.
In other words, we need leadership with the vision, courage and commitment to tell the truth – and to lead for the future rather than the next opinion poll.
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Peace in Tassie forests?

A follow on article to Election time takings about the Tasmanian forest peace plan as reported in various editions of the Daily Timber News from various viewpoints including that of Jan Davis, CEO of the Tasmanian Farmers& Graziers Association.

22/11/2012 Peace deal or piece deal

Multiple sources confirmed to The Australian that green and timber groups had agreed to protect more than 503,000ha of native forests while allocating 137,000cu m of sawlogs a year to industry.
The deal followed more than two years of difficult negotiation and was being voted on by the boards of the conservation and industry groups involved in the process.

…………..The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TGFA) said the deal was no deal as it implied there was give and take and said it was a sell-out for every Tasmanian.

“It is unconscionable for a group of unelected environmental groups and industry representatives to be making decisions to lock up public resources in perpetuity,” TFGA chief executive Jan Davis said today.

“This is an outrage that the Legislative Council must throw out in its entirety.

“The 1600 private owners with forests covering private 27% of Tasmania’s native forest estate were given no say in this process.”

29/11/2012 Green peace, I don’t think so

Coalition Forestry spokesman Richard Colbeck said there were many other parties that significantly impacted by “this sham process, including agriculture, mining, tourism, and furniture manufacture, and they have had absolutely no say”.

“To replace the volumes lost with plantation timber will take decades and also approximately 100,000ha of land, most likely agricultural land, of which there is about 650,000ha in the State,” he said.

“Not only will the greens campaign against the conversion of farm land to plantation, they will continue to campaign against the native forest sector,” Senator Colbeck said. “That is why Bob Brown and Peg Putt have taken up more senior positions in Markets for Change, which opposes all native forest harvesting.”

29/11/2012 Forestry deal worth billions togovernment

It is predicted the Federal Government could see a $7 billion windfall from Tasmania's forestry peace deal. The chance for the windfall comes after the Commonwealth committed $300 million to the deal, which reduces native forest logging. Source ABC News

Climate law expert Andrew MacIntosh, from the Australian National University, believes the deal could raise billions for the Commonwealth through international carbon credits.

He told Radio National that new rules come into effect when Australia signs the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

"The one that's relevant here is that any reduction in native forest harvesting below the levels in the 2000's results in the Australian Government getting credits," he said.

11/12/2012 Tasmanian farmers reject ‘peace plan’

Jan Davis, CEO of the Tasmanian Farmers & Graziers Association (TFGA) doesn’t mince words when it comes to describing the fallout from the drawn out forestry peace talks/deal in Tasmania. Source: Timberbiz

“We don’t learn from past experience in this State,” she said. “The main thing that got up everybody’s nose with the Gunn’s pulp mill episode was that due process was not followed. And here we go again.

……………“Just because somebody has promised a bucket of money if a deal is done before Christmas isn’t a reason to accept a dud outcome,” she said.

“Decisions of this magnitude need to be assessed on the basis of triple bottom line outcomes – economic, social and environmental. We’re told this ‘deal’ delivers environmental outcomes, despite the fact that more and more research shows that lock-up-and-leave approaches actually result in decreased biodiversity outcomes.