One Green Is Right

Kim Booth MHA, the Tasmanian Greens representative for Bass, released a statement today which contained a valid point of principle:

The Tasmanian Greens said serious questions hung over Forestry Tasmania’s secretive decision to purchase the Southwood sawmill from Gunns, and enter into leasing arrangements with a third party.

Greens Forestry spokesperson Kim Booth MP said the deal was another act of deceit levelled against the Tasmanian taxpayer by a rogue organisation hell bent on destroying the Forests Intergovernmental Agreement and returning to business as usual in the forest industry.  […]

“There is no place in a modern economy for taxpayers’ money being used to prop up a private company.”
“Every time public money is used to interfere in the market and try and pick winners the market fails and this latest game by FT is just a sad repletion [!] of the now discredited Gunns monopoly model.”
“No wonder it’s become a struggle to make money out of the timber industry in Tasmania,” said Mr Booth.

Mr. Booth is correct:  there is indeed “no place in a modern economy for taxpayers’ money being used to prop up a private company.”  Let us remember these wise words next time The Greens shout that the Government ought to use taxpayers’ money to prop up a private company.
See, however, Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young support the “Rally for Solar”, or Dr. Adam Bandt call for the Government to support General Motors Holden, or Brad Scott (a Greens candidate) complain that the Queensland government is cutting subsidies for the solar industry.  The official Climate Change and Energy policy of the Australian Greens includes an undertaking to “transfer subsidies and government support, including funding for research and development, from the fossil fuel sectors to energy efficiency and renewable energy.”