It is too late to do this before the election now, but both should do it soon after, no matter who wins, or can form a government.
The reason both leaders should do this is that the current candidates for Environment Minister are unsuitable for the role, and both have compromised themselves, in my opinion.
Greg Hunt, Liberal, Member for Flinders, Victoria Mark Butler, Labor, Member for Port current Minister for the Environment Adelaide, Shadow Minister, Environment
I reckon both are too soft, and both have been captured by the environment movement, and the selfish fundamentalist parasites that manipulate the myriad groups under that banner.
They should cease to regard that cabal as their primary constituents. In fact, the portfolio should be re-named, and the member nominated should be known as the Minister for Environmental Management. From that point forward, the portfolio should be managed differently, and the federal department re-arranged to ensure the primacy of properly conducted science and genuinely peer-reviewed assessment, and to removed conflicted individuals from critical areas of influence.
Greg Hunt is the current Environment Minister, and Mark Butler is his immediate predecessor under the last days of the Gillard-Rudd former Labor government.
Both Greg Hunt and Mark Butler have caved in to pressure from the Greens and the ENGO's, (environment non-government organisations). Greg Hunt and his Tasmanian counterpart recently and hastily agreed to accept all the recommendations of the report (March, 2016) of the UN's World Heritage Reactive Monitoring Mission to Tasmania that took place in November, 2016, without consulting with affected stakeholders in the Tasmanian timber industry, nor even with some of his colleagues in the Tasmanian Legislative Council, (Upper House), whose electorates were affected. I believe this was done in response to a larger game that was in play. I believe the federal government was so worried about the Great Barrier Reef being declared "World Heritage in Danger" that they offered to buckle on their earlier position on access to Special Timbers for limited single-stem selective logging in appropriate areas within the 2013 extension of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area in exchange for them going a bit easier on Australia over the reef. They were backing away from their earlier position on their own Draft Management Plan, even though it was for areas where the underlying land tenure had not changed, and where it appeared to satisfy even the strict provisions of the IUCN and World Heritage Centre's own guidelines on managing World Heritage and managing resources and tourism. If this is the case, it is a disgraceful way to treat an industry and it's people, and especially an arts-based activity that has such iconic social, cultural and heritage status, and such status within the tourism and visitor experience as the Special Timbers product design and manufacturing sector. We believe this sector would qualify for recognition under another UN Convention, and that is the one on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Mark Butler took over from Tony Burke, who is one that well and truly sold the Tasmanian timber industry down the river, and caused a massive portion of the remaining Special Timbers Zone to be locked up. Tony Burke has been a member of The Wilderness Society since his mid teens, well before becoming a member of the Labor party. His partisanship and past form and behaviour has made him a hated figure throughout the timber industry, and I believe was a significant contributing factor to why the Tasmanian Labor government lost office in 2014 in the biggest landslide in its history. It seems as though Tony has continued as a mentor to Mark, and they have been seen and photographed in Tasmania's expropriated forests, and seemed warmly regarded by their new and old friends from the anti-forestry brigade. The following image is in the Styx forest, around the time the subsequent government was trying to get some of our forests back. Apart from Burke and Butler, those present included the national and state directors of The Wilderness Society, Lyndon Schneiders and Vica Bayley respectively, as well as other well-known activists, including Warwick Jordan. Jenny McAllister, formerly of LEAN, now a senator, was with them in the front row. How do you think this went down with timber industry people?
Vica Bayley, TWS Tasmania in foreground, WHA proposal writer Geoff Law in red jacket.
Labor in Tasmania currently has seven seats in a 25-seat lower house, when prior to 2010 it had a majority. There are five members in five electorates making up the house. The Liberals currently have 15 and the Greens three. The far north west seat of Braddon currently has four Liberals, one Labor, (Opposition Leader Bryan Green), and no Greens. This is an unnatural result for that seat, as the timber industry has a major presence there, and strong worker support. Tasmania now has only one member in the House of Representatives, Julie Collins, (Franklin), as support for Labor federally collapsed as well in 2013.
As I have said elsewhere, Labor has become an urban party. Sadly, though, the urban political landscape has become one where Labor is battling to hold its traditional seats against strong campaigns by the Greens, and this is dragging campaigning resources away from fighting for marginal LNP-held seats in the regions. If Labor were to make a decent pitch to regain the support of workers from the timber industry and other resource-based industries in the regions, such as mining, fishing, agriculture, it could pinch seats off the coalition, but it would have to stand up strongly against the greens to do so, and it would have to sound convincing. AFPA (Australian Forest Products Association) has identified 12 marginal seats (ie. held by less than 5%) around the regions where the timber industry is significant, and the majority are held by the coalition. Hello...???
I believe a robust stand of support for a decent, well-managed timber industry would reward Labor, and it would not necessarily drive voters towards the Liberals or Nationals....
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