Tasmania’s native forestry: The full picture [AU]Friday 31 Jul 2026
The claim that Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s published financial profit is merely a “paper profit” overlooks the figures designed to show how the underlying business is actually performing. In 2024-2025, STT recorded a $7.5m increase in the value of its biological assets. It also separately reported an underlying net profit of $0.8m, defined as operating revenue less operating expenditure and positive operating cash flow of $1.8m. It paid an ordinary dividend to the state and has now recorded eight consecutive profitable results. Since 2017, STT has paid $30m to the state in dividends and made contributions to on-island processing funds to help the local sawmilling sector modernise its equipment. Importantly, STT’s accounts are prepared under Australian Accounting Standards, including the standard applying to biological assets. The forest valuation is undertaken by an independent specialist and examined by Audit Tasmania, which concluded that the 2024–2025 accounts presented a true and fair view of STT’s financial performance, position and cash flows. STT is happy to acknowledge that such accounting standards do not capture every social and environmental value provided by Tasmania’s forests and it is reasonable to debate the limitations of the accounting process. However, STT is not using a valuation method of its own invention. We are applying the accounting rules required for biological assets, which measure the value of the standing timber, which are not designed to measure every economic, environmental and community benefit. That distinction is important because valuing the standing timber separately does not mean the broader costs of managing the forest are ignored. STT’s financial statements include contractor and freight costs, property management, local government rates, road depreciation, forest re-establishment, and fire prevention and suppression. For example, whilst reporting a financial profit last financial year, STT also carried out maintenance on 3040km of existing roads, constructed 24km of new roads, conducted works on 5566ha of forest, sowed 100 million locally sourced seeds and achieved a 99.5 per cent regeneration success rate across the areas assessed. STT also planted about half a million seedlings in restocking timber plantations that had been previously harvested. The characterisation of STT as having “rent-free” access is similarly incomplete. STT is not a private company handed free land to exploit. It is a government business enterprise established under legislation to manage Permanent Timber Production Zone land for multiple users, while supporting economic growth and employment and supplying agreed volumes of timber. It manages a forest-road network of more than 10,000km, providing access for communities, tourism, beekeepers, hunters, fishers, emergency services and other land managers. It also manages hundreds of leases, licences and easements, supports apiary sites, undertakes conservation, research programs, biodiversity outcomes, carbon storage and provides a trained statewide firefighting capability with about 16 per cent of PTPZ, around 129,000ha, being managed purely for conservation. The $12m STT receives from government is transparently identified as payment for community service obligations: keeping public production land managed and accessible, undertaking fuel-reduction work, supporting fire prevention and detection, and helping suppress fires on non-production forests and adjoining land. That is not a concealed subsidy to log sales. It is payment for public services the state would still need to allocate should timber harvesting end. The wider economic contribution of STT’s forestry activities also matters. During 2024–2025, STT paid $109m to 544 Tasmanian businesses, with 87 per cent of its purchases made locally. About $45m went to harvesting and haulage contractors. More than 1.2 million tonnes of forest products were harvested and transported for Tasmanian processing, including high-quality eucalypt sawlogs and special-species timbers. Those figures represent regional Tasmanian businesses – including contractors, truck drivers, sawmill workers, engineers, mechanics, furniture makers, builders and small businesses. Most importantly, value creation does not stop when a log leaves the forest, that is only the beginning. Once delivered, the value of the log and the number of people employed continues to grow as it moves through local processing, manufacturing, construction, retail spending, wages and household incomes. None of this means native forestry should be beyond scrutiny. STT must keep improving efficiency, transparency, forest practices and environmental outcomes. It must account for carbon, biodiversity, cultural values, water, recreation and future generations, while meeting supply commitments and maintaining financial discipline. The evidence suggests Tasmania is not carrying a cost burden from public production forestry. Through employment, processing, public land management, fire protection, regional investment, community access and dividend returns to the state, Tasmania is receiving substantial value from its forest industry. Source & image credit: Dean Kearney is the chief executive of Sustainable Timber Tasmania  | ||
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