FT to publish Wood Supply Agreements

As Stewards of a public resource, Forestry Tasmania is committed to being open and transparent in its commercial dealings, while respecting the requirement to protect its commercial interests and those of its customers. In keeping with our commitment to operate in an open and transparent manner,

FT will post on its web site, wood supply agreements, as well as responses to requests under Freedom of Information. These documents can be found at www.forestrytas.com.au in the 'Maps and Documents' section.

 
Our rationale for this is simple: FT is managing a public resource and the public deserves to know about the decisions that are made and how this public asset is being safeguarded for future generations.

We have removed the old standard ‘commercial in confidence’ clauses from contract templates. Confidentiality clauses will be negotiated for each new contract starting from a base of complete disclosure. If there are legitimate grounds for ensuring commercial confidentiality, contracts will have those sections removed prior to being published on the Forestry Tasmania web site.

In general, contracts will be posted for a defined period and will then be available on request from Head Office. Contracts will be released after consultation with – and as far as possible – approval of our customers, recognising that FoI provisions are not dependent on such approval.

Our commitment to transparency has being extended to requests made under Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation. FT is now publishing on its web site responses to FoI requests. This will be accompanied by an e-mail advisory to media notifying them of new content, with links to where the documents can be found on the FT web site.