Bob Brown says Premier Rockliff and Forestry Minister Abetz are derelict in not ensuring the 3,000-year-old Harman River Huon Pine in Takayna was safe from the wildfire which has burnt to within 100 metres of it. The tree remains threatened and, Brown says, the two will be responsible if it burns. They must give the Takayna fires huge attention instead of their cold shoulder.

Rockliff and Abetz are doubly culpable, Brown says.

“Firstly, their forest regeneration burns are a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions heating the planet and effectively fanning bushfires. Second, they did diddly-squat about protecting this ancient Tasmanian heirloom tree even when the fire threatened to reduce it to a pile of ash. No water bombing. No fire crews. Nothing.

Brown’s call comes after the 2019 bushfires in which 15 of the 25 tallest trees in Tasmania were incinerated because they were ignored by the Liberal government.