Abbott: Too Much Of Australia's Forests "Locked Up" In National Parks, But He's "Open For Business"

Tony Abbott has said Australia has too much forest placed within national parks, declaring that the country is now “open for business for the forestry industry”.

In a speech to the ForestWorks dinner in Canberra, Abbott attacked the “Green ideology” which he blamed for hampering economic growth in Tasmania and unnecessarily protecting swaths of the state’s forest. Abbott reiterated his commitment to strip World Heritage listing from 74,000 hectares of Tasmanian forest, and signalled displeasure at the extent of national parks in general, which cover almost 4% of Australia’s land mass.

Abbott said: “Now I’m all in favour of protecting pristine wilderness in proportion – I am all in favour of that. But why should we lock up, as some kind of world heritage sanctuary, country which has been logged, degraded or planted for timber? Why should we do that?

“We have quite enough national parks, we have quite enough locked-up forests already. In fact, in an important respect, we have too much locked-up forest. “So my friends, when I say that I want Australia to be open for business, I mean open for business for the forestry industry.”

EDIT

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/tony-abbott-tells-tasmania-too-much-forest-is-locked-up-in-national-parks