Alastair Scott - Forestry

10 May 2018

It’s time for the Government to step up and give the Forestry industry some much needed certainty around its strategy for the future, National’s Forestry spokesperson Alastair Scott says.

“Ahead of opening the new NZ Forestry Service in Rotorua tomorrow, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Forestry Shane Jones have set big expectations the industry will finally get some much-needed information about how the Government plans to grow the Forestry Industry.

“The industry is still keenly awaiting the proposed National Forestry Strategy that they promised in the election,” Mr Scott says.

“There are three big questions that need answers; where are the seedlings coming from, where are the trees going to be planted and who is going to plant them?

“The Minister has had over six months in the job and we have still seen no actual detail on how the Government plans to boost the sector.

“This Government is rich in rhetoric but is failing to deliver change or a strategy to achieve the tree planting target.

“The Forestry sector has seen no new policies or schemes announced, no substantial financial injection to date and the Minister announced two weeks ago that he has only just planted the first tree in the One Billion Trees planting programme.

“It’s time for the Minister to start delivering some certainty to the industry. Let’s hope we see some detail announced on Friday,” Mr Scott says.

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