Tasmanian forestry contractors paid to exit industry permitted to continue logging

Updated

Tasmanian forestry contractors are continuing to log forests and cart timber, despite being paid by taxpayers to leave the industry.

Contractors were eligible to receive up to $3 million to exit the industry for 10 years as part of $45 million made available by the Gillard Labor government in 2011.

Smithton contractor Max Gillie was paid more than $900,000 to leave the industry.

But 7.30 found Mr Gillie logging a private native forest near Edith Creek in north-western Tasmania.

When confronted about what he was doing, Mr Gillie produced a letter from the Federal Department of Agriculture.

Dated October 24, 2012 and signed by the department's assistant secretary of the forestry branch, Paul McNamara, it said Mr Gillie had special permission to log native forest if it was on private property and he owned the land and the trees.

It required Mr Gillie to provide evidence to the department that he owned the land and the trees before starting to log.

Mr Gillie does not own the Edith Creek property he was logging. He maintained that did not matter.

"I own the trees, I don't have to own the land," he said.

"I can go and cut down trees on any bloke's land. As an ex-forestry contractor, if I'm a ratepayer for forestry, we own the land."

'It's just greed at its greatest level'

Fellow forestry contractor Jason Weller was outraged Mr Gillie appeared to be breaching the terms of his exit agreement.

"It's just greed at its greatest level," he said.

"A million dollars. If someone come and put a million in my account to get out of town, I couldn't get out quick enough," he said.

"You should suffer the consequences and pay back the money if you've broken the rules."

Mr Gillie denied he breached the terms of his exit grant or unfairly obtained a financial advantage.

"You know where that $1 million went? In paying out the gear that I had at that stage," he said.

"Now I'm still paying off this excavator three years later on and the truck, so forestry didn't really help me a lot did they?"

Retiring Greens senator Christine Milne said the Department of Agriculture should never have given Mr Gillie the letter.

Senator Milne is calling for the department to investigate the alleged breach of Mr Gillie's exit grant.

"Why on Earth did the department give a grant to someone to get out of the industry and then provide them with a letter saying they could log their own land and then of course discover that they're logging other people's land as well?" she said.

"It's wrong, exit should mean exit. You get out of the industry if you're paid to get out of the industry.

"This is symptomatic of the complete rort and mess and failure of minsters at the federal level to oversee these programs."

Department confirms fraud, non-compliance with program

Last month, the federal Department of Agriculture confirmed following an investigation it had found one case of fraud and two cases of non-compliance among forestry contractors.

The Department has not said which contractors are involved or detailed what activities led to the breaches.

It also has not confirmed what action it will take because it says it does not comment on ongoing investigations.

A scathing 2013 report by the Commonwealth Auditor-General found the exit grants program had been poorly implemented by the department, lacked transparency and resulted in millions being misspent.

It found money was given to people who may not have been eligible under the rules of the program.

Mr Weller struggles to compete against contractors who have received millions of dollars in taxpayer handouts only to continue working in the industry with the funds to invest in new equipment and machinery.

He is calling for the Federal Government to take action against people who are doing the wrong thing.

"We need to bash on their door daily and ring them and continually harass them and we just want some answers," Mr Weller said.

"We're all concerned, we're all battling, we're all taxpayers. We need to know why they've allowed this to continue on."

Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce and parliamentary secretary Richard Colbeck declined to be interviewed.

In a statement, the Department of Agriculture said it was unable to comment on the specific circumstances of individuals, or on the specific details of current or ongoing investigations.

Members of the public can report suspected wrongdoing to the department on 02 6272 4477 or via their website http://agriculture.gov.au/about/contactus/fcac

Topics: forestry, rural, federal-government, government-and-politics, tas, australia

First posted