Family First – FORESTRY SCANDAL ENGULFS PREMIER VISITING SOUTH EAST

For further information contact: Robert Brokenshire on 0419 815 990 or 08 8237 9122
FAMILY FIRST – The Independent Party
FORESTRY SCANDAL ENGULFS
PREMIER VISITING SOUTH EAST
Thursday 8 Decemebr 2011
Confidential Forestry SA Board Minutes reveal that the Government controlling the
process of Forward Sale of State Forestry has kept the Board in the dark and seen
the Government belittle them, gag them and now many of the Board members
(including the chair) are gone – with questions hanging as to whether they have been
sacked, pushed, jumped or otherwise.
The scandalous Minutes have been located on the Parliament website and reveal a
deterioration of the relationship between the Government – intent on forward sale –
and the Board who, in their professional opinion as managers of the forest, felt the
sale was not in the State’s best interests. A Board letter to the former Forestry
Minister attached to the Minutes says the forward sale, in their opinion, is:
“A decision based on false premise pursuant to receipt of untested or
inaccurate data would lead to the Parliament and people of SA being
misled.” (emphasis added)
As Chair of the Select Committee that published the Minutes, Family First MLC Rob
Brokenshire, said the Government now had an immense scandal on its hands.
“The Forestry SA Board are highly professional and expert in these matters. Yet
these Minutes reveal they have been treated disgracefully and, after Mr Rann
handed over to Mr Weatherill, were forced to sign gags that they protested are
arguably illegal. This is a massive scandal and with the Premier in the South East
today, this is a major test of his new leadership”
“Forestry SA protested, as have experts like Dr Jerry Leech and community
members, that the forward sale relies on false assumptions and could undersell the
asset. At $48m per annum on latest figures, projected in evidence by Forestry SA to
exceed $50m in forward estimates, that’s a 11% net return, yet the Government
wants to forward sell the asset – when it could borrow money at less than half that
amount!”
MEDIA RELEASE
HON ROBERT BROKENSHIRE MLC
HON ROBERT BROKENSHIRE MLC
FAMILY FIRST
The Independent PartyMEDIA RELEASE
Robert Brokenshire – FAMILY FIRST PARTY
“I’m calling on Premier Weatherill to tell today’s thousands-strong rally in Mount
Gambier today to halt the Forward Sale immediately and conduct a root and branch
review of the sale process to date”
Family First MLC Dennis Hood has already foreshadowed he will move a motion for
the Auditor-General to investigate the process when Parliament returns in February
2012.