A promise to plant one billion trees by 2030 is still achievable despite experts saying otherwise, the prime minister insists.
About 4300 hectares have been planted, equivalent to one per cent of a target announced during the 2019 federal election.
Visiting a sawmill in northern Tasmania on Thursday, Scott Morrison blamed the Black Summer bushfires for hindering progress and announced further support to achieve the goal.
“We didn’t set (the targets) because we thought they were easy, we set them because we believed they were important,” he told reporters in Launceston.
“We have to keep working to that despite the setbacks that we have had.”
But Labor said it was an example of another broken promise from the coalition with leader Anthony Albanese accusing the government of being all announcement and no delivery.
“This is a prime minister who can’t be trusted to deliver on his commitments next term because he has shown this term that he can’t be trusted,” he told reporters in the NSW Hunter region.
“He will be there for the photo op but he is never there for the follow-up, always.”
Mr Morrison used his visit to the electorate of Bass – the government’s most marginal seat in parliament – to pledge a near-$220 million package for the forestry sector to invest in new technologies and expand while securing its existing 73,000 jobs.
A Liberal-Nationals coalition government would never support shutdowns of native forestry and would instead work with the state government to create permanent timber production sites, he vowed.
“The pressures on the building industry and the uncertain international trade situation has made it clear that local wood products and local skills are critical.
“Just ask any tradie who has been trying to get wood products.”
The election commitment includes $100 million to establish a national institute for forest products innovation.
A central hub will be built in Launceston along with five centres in other regional areas.
It also includes nearly $113 million in grants to fast-track the adoption of new wood processing technologies.
The forestry plan received more than $90 million in the 2022/23 federal budget for establishing new plantations and measures to stop illegal timber imports.
Tasmania is the third state the prime minister is visiting in almost as many days after spending time in regional NSW, western Sydney and Geelong.
