To: Bob Gordon, Managing Director, Forestry Tasmania, 79 Melville St Hobart TAS 7000.
Dear Mr Gordon,
I am writing on behalf of Still Wild Still Threatened, (SWST). On the 20th of January 2009, SWST sent a request to yourself, in your capacity as Managing Director of Forestry Tasmania, seeking information regarding FT's operations in the Upper Florentine Valley.
Given Forestry Tasmania's stated commitment to transparency and stakeholder consultation, we were dismayed that the response to this request, as relayed through the media, was a firm refusal to even consider the matter. Derwent District Forester Steve Whitely was quoted by media outlets as saying that FT does not provide information to community members who undertake “media stunts”, an apparent reference to the delivery of the request letter to Forestry Tasmania's Melville Street office.
In the intervening month, no communication has been received by Still Wild Still Threatened from Forestry Tasmania. Given this, we feel obliged to make a formal complaint regarding Forestry Tasmania’s conduct in this situation. Our organisation’s understanding is that FT has made a commitment to openness and transparency, and we feel that the response to date has been wholly unbefitting of a taxpayer funded enterprise mandated to manage Tasmania’s forest estate on behalf of the Tasmanian people.
Certain information requested has been used repeatedly by FT in support of its operations in the Upper Florentine, and we are confused as to why this information is being utilised to support public statements yet cannot be disclosed to the public in its entirety. This approach appears to be incompatible with FT’s responsibilities to the Tasmanian public, and to its previous commitments to open the “battered briefcase”.
We look forward to hearing from you on this matter.
Respectfully,
Still Wild Still Threatened.
FT has for so long been able to hide behind government exemptions to what it has to disclose, who knows what skeletons will emerge when they do open the "battered briefcase". Tasmanians are also so accustomed to the skulduggery & indifference of FT practices, it is accepted as standard practice. Yet Tasmanians are the stakeholders in our forests! Their refusal (along with the Premier) to have any part in TWS forums just to discuss areas of public concern, is typical of this attitude that they don't have to provide anything to the public.
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