Senator Eric Abetz

"If media reports are to be believed, thousands of timber worker's jobs are on the line in Tasmania," Senator Abetz and Senator Richard Colbeck said today.

"Julia Gillard is resurrecting the ghost of Mark Latham by planning to sell out the very people who voted Labor into Government in the first place at the behest of Labor's Union backers."

Tasmanian Senators Eric Abetz and Richard Colbeck are calling on the Gillard Government to come clean with the people of Tasmania and to show openness and accountability and to fully explain the backroom deal Labor is reportedly doing with the Greens, the Unions and so called elements of the Timber Industry.

"We call upon Labor to stand up for the voiceless people who are concerned that a deal is being done by 'so called' powerbrokers at the expense of small and vulnerable communities, delivering a death blow to the Tasmanian economy."

"Ms Gillard also needs to explain why most of the sector has been excluded in Labor's negotiations and how much money the Labor Government is prepared to splash around at the expense of Tasmanian forestry jobs."

"We are extremely concerned that many other aspects of Tasmania's sustainable native forest logging industry, which the small business sector so heavily depends upon, may all be sacrificed for the sake of getting the pulp mill up when there is no scientific reason why we can't have both. The fact that Labor may be planning to do so without proper scientific evaluation is a genuine concern."

"This is big Government, big unions and big environmental groups doing secretive deals with big business and has the propensity to do long term damage to Tasmania with individual country saw millers and other small operators simply thrown to the wolves."

"We would be fearful that any Greens 'tick off' on this deal would be short-lived as they would simply orchestrate another campaign to oppose completion of the pulp mill."

"Labor has clearly abandoned the people of Tasmania; Julia Gillard's secret native forest plan will destroy the livelihoods of thousands of Tasmanian workers."

"Small towns like Geeveston and Smithton will become ghost towns and dozens of other small local economies will be destroyed."

"Julia Gillard needs to forget about playing politics, she needs to stop the secretive backroom power deals that are impacting on the livelihoods of the people of Tasmania, and come clean and tell Tasmanians exactly what's happening."